


Beacon Academy

by Fandom_Trash98



Category: RWBY
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Autisic Ruby, Bumblebee - Freeform, Bumbleby - Freeform, F/F, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Domestic Violence, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, Lesbians, Overprotective Yang, PTSD Blake, Self-Harm, Understanding Weiss, Whiterose, f/f - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-03
Updated: 2018-03-29
Packaged: 2018-12-23 12:38:38
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 12
Words: 23,471
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11989962
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fandom_Trash98/pseuds/Fandom_Trash98
Summary: A University AU where team RWBY are at Beacon Academy, the most prestigious university in Remnant. There will be dark themes, fluff, angst. Good stuff and bad stuff will happen to the girls. White Rose and Bumblebee are endgame, but I'm hoping to pace this so it's not quite a slow burn but it's not rushed either. I changed the rating to Mature, because I want to explore the dark themes properly and it might get too much for a Teen rating.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is my second fanfic. I'm planning on making it multi-chapter, but I want to know what people think first?

Looking down at the letter in her hand, Weiss Schnee confirmed that the room in front of her was her new shared dormitory room. The heiress sighed deeply, and braced herself for whatever may be on the other side of the door. Beacon Academy was a prestigious university. Entry was more than difficult and it only accepted the best of the best; it was a marvellously envied establishment. That fact, however, did not pardon its more old fashioned rules, such as the shared dormitory, and Weiss found herself irritated that she could not have her own private room. Deciding that she looked foolish standing outside her new room, Weiss procured her university identity card from her blouse pocket and used it to unlock the door. Pulling her suitcase behind her, she took in the bedroom and its sole occupant. Two sets of bunk beds stood on either side of the room, separated by a large window and desk that had two chairs pushed under it. A glance to her left revealed a second desk of the same size with two more chairs pushed under it, next to a door that most likely lead to the shared bathroom. To her right there were two tall wardrobes, and past them a small kitchenette and circular table with four chairs. Finally, her eyes fell upon the other woman in the room. She was sat on the bottom bunk on the right side of the room, nose buried in a book. She wore mostly black and white, sporting a black bow on her head, white t-shirt with a black waistcoat and white shorts, black boots, and black ribbons tied around her arms. Her leggings started off black with white stripes, but as Weiss followed their fabric, she noticed they became purple towards the bottom. The girl still had not acknowledged Weiss’ presence, so the young heiress cleared her throat. Amber eyes glanced up from behind the book.

“Hello, I am Weiss Schnee, I will be one of your roommates.” A few seconds of silence occurred as amber stayed locked onto icy blue. “Blake Belladonna.” And with that the girl continued reading. ‘Well,’ Weiss thought to herself, ‘at least she’s quiet. She shouldn’t be too much of a bother. Let us hope the other two are the same.’ With the introductions aside, Weiss fully entered the room and allowed the door to close behind her luggage. She moved over to the bottom bunk on the left side of the room. No Schnee was going to take up a _top_ bunk. The other two girls will just have to deal with the results, they were not here to lay claim and Blake had also clearly claimed her bed. Weiss had just finished unpacking her things and placing her now collapsed suitcases under her bed, when the door burst open and a hearty laugh shattered the silence of the room.

“Oh come on Ruby! That was a good one and you know it!” came a boisterous voice, tinged with mirth. “Yang that’s the second time you’ve made a _suit yourself_ joke about my luggage! It wasn’t funny the first time!” came a second, more exasperated voice. The owners of the voice soon came into view. A tall, buxom blonde with a large, bright smile strolled into the dorm, carrying two suitcases under her arms and two in her hands. She followed by a much shorter brunette, with a smaller smile, who was fiddling with something in her hands that Weiss couldn’t see. The blonde turned to the two other women in the room. “Oh! Hi! I didn’t know if anyone would be here yet! I’m Yang and this is my baby sister Ruby!” She finished her statement with a wide grin that she turned towards her sister as Ruby made a mumbled comment about not being a baby. Looking at her, Weiss did feel as though Ruby looked a fair bit younger than everyone else in the room. Yang strode into the room and set the suitcases down in the middle, before stretching her back. Ruby walked forward into the room, and the door closed behind her. 

“Looks like you two claimed the bottom bunks. We’ll be on top then.” A suggestive wink was thrown in Weiss’ direction after that statement, causing the heiress to scowl. Yang ignored this. “So, which side do you want, Rubels?” The brunette looked between the two sides for a moment, before picking up two of the suitcases on the floor and moving towards the left bunks. “Okay then! Guess I’m going right-side. Hey, so do you two have names?” Yang asked. “I am Weiss Schnee.” “Blake” came the two replies. “Cool cool, Blake and Weiss, got it.” Yang scratched behind her ear awkwardly, then shrugged and picked up her suitcases. The room fell into silence again as Ruby and Yang unpacked their things, Blake read her book, and Weiss informed her father that she had settled into her room. The silence did not last. Once Yang had finished packing, she looked over to her sister to find her nervously pulling at the fidget toy she had bought and looking around the room. Deciding she needed to distract her sister before she wound herself up, Yang pulled one of the chairs from the desk at the window and sat facing Ruby. “So sis, you looking forward to starting your course?”

Yang knew she’d successfully distracted Ruby as the girl stopped fidgeting and launched into an animated proclamation about just how excited she was. Yang was so amused by her sister that she didn’t notice the deepening scowl Weiss began to sport. Ruby was just telling Yang about how she couldn’t wait to learn new ways to improve her tech, when Weiss’ shrill voice spat out “Do you have to talk so much!?” The reaction was immediate, Ruby recoiled and went back to fidgeting looking thoroughly put out and Yang stood and glared at Weiss. “Hey, what’s all that about? She’s not hurting anyone, we were just having a conversation!” Yang’s fists clenched as she spoke. “Yes, well there’s a conversation and then there’s running your mouth for no reason. It isn’t just you and your sister in this room!” Weiss seethed. Yang opened her mouth to retort, when a meek “S-sorry.” cut her off. Both Yang and Weiss looked towards Ruby, who was standing, her fidgeting much more intense, looking towards the door like she wanted to bolt from the room. Again, Weiss noticed the girl had something in her hand. Curiously, she raised an eyebrow towards Ruby. “What are you fiddling with?” Silently, Ruby held out what looked like a very malleable piece of red rubber, before bringing it back into her hands again. Weiss stared for a moment, cogs turning, while Yang watched, alert and ready to step in to defend and protect her sister as necessary. The penny dropped and Weiss’ face reflected shock. The girl’s behaviour made sense. ‘She’s autistic, like Winter.’ Weiss realised. A brief glance to Yang, who was looking at Ruby with a concern she’d seen and felt herself before confirmed it. 

“Ruby.” Yang’s head snapped towards Weiss, watching her carefully, expecting more rudeness from the girl. “I’m very sorry I yelled at you. You can talk as freely as you wish.” Both Ruby and Yang’s mouths fell open in surprise. That was not what they expected to hear. Ruby visibly calmed some, still fidgeting slightly. A voice came from behind Yang. “If you’re all done, the induction ceremony is in fifteen minutes.” With that Blake Belladonna left the room. The remaining three women followed shortly after.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you liked it, let me know? I don't want to write this whole thing if no one likes this. I welcome any constructive criticism and if I've made errors please let me know so I can fix them. I have some ideas about where I want to take this thing, which is what the tags will refer to if I do run with this.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay! So I got another writing itch today and this is the result. It's slightly shorter than the last chapter, but size doesn't matter..? I am terrible with schedules, so I don't know how often I'll write chapters. But for now, enjoy!

The four girls walked wordlessly back into their room, each thinking about Headmaster Ozpin’s speech. The induction had started out as expected, each student receiving a timetable, a syllabus and a complimentary stationary set with the Beacon Academy logo embroidered on it. Then came the time for Ozpin to address the new students, and that started out as expected too. Until Ozpin informed the students that Beacon had a ‘Buddy System’ in place. Yang wasn’t too bothered by this new information, and was actually relieved she could keep an eye on her sister without seeming too motherly. To Yang the Buddy System provided a perfect cover and she was starting to smile until Ozpin informed the students that their ‘buddy’ was going to be the person they shared their bunk with. Yang was floored. Not only was she not happy with the idea that the Schnee girl was going to be her sister’s buddy, but she was also not happy about her own prospects. Blake was quiet, reserved and Yang was very much, well she was Blake’s _Yang_. The blonde let out a small chuckle at her own pun before sobering quickly. This was not good. Weiss seemed to be short-tempered and impatient, entitled almost, and her sister was… well she was Ruby. So far only four people had ever been able to understand and respect Ruby’s different ways, one of them dead, the other two not here, leaving just Yang. There would be blood spilt before she ever let anyone hurt her Ruby. 

That being said, the Schnee did apologise for snapping at Ruby, and Yang noticed Weiss staring at Ruby as they walked to the main hall, almost like she was studying her. Yang glanced over towards where Weiss had sat at the desk against the wall and noticed that she was looking at Ruby. The look was definitely curiosity, and it spurred Yang’s own curiosity. Why was she looking at Ruby like that? The look didn’t seem to hold any distaste, it seemed appraising. Following Weiss’ line of sight, she saw Ruby sat on her bunk fiddling with the piece of rubber Yang had given her a few days earlier. _‘To help you if you get nervous during your first week, Rubes’_ she remembered saying. It was apparent to anyone with eyes that Ruby was nervous now, sat staring intensely at the rubber in her hand. It was time to step in again and calm her sister. 

“So…” she started, and Weiss’ attention snapped to where she was sat at the desk by the window. Yang glanced over to Blake to see the girl still reading intently as she had been doing since returning to the dorm. “I guess since we’re going to be bunking together and everything we should know more about each other than just our names. Like, for example, I’m going to be studying Psychology and Ethics here, how about you guys?” Yang watched as Ruby turned to Weiss, who spoke next. “I will be studying Business with Economics and Statistics” Yang let out a low whistle, “so you’re a genius like Rubels here?” A splutter was heard from Ruby’s bed. “Yang don’t say that, I’m not- I’m not a genius, I’m not special” Her face was slightly flushed and her hands started to move faster. Damn, Yang silently berated herself for doing the opposite of what she intended. “I’m just kidding with you Ruby. Why don’t you tell Weiss what you will be studying?” She watched as Weiss turned to look at Ruby and took note of how the white-haired girl’s eyes lingered on Ruby’s fumbling hands. “I am interested in what subject you will be taking, Ruby. From what Headmaster Ozpin said, the rooms were chosen based on overlapping classes. We might be in the same class for something.” This surprised Yang, perhaps she’d judged the girl too quickly? She knew she had a tendency to become over protective. Perhaps Weiss was just stressed and nervous about her first day and that’s why she snapped at Ruby? Ruby’s response cut through her train of thought. “I’ll be studying Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering!” Yang’s face broke into a smile. It always amused her just how much her baby sister loved her subject choice, her excitement was palpable. “I will be studying Sociology and Ethics with Economics” came Blake’s voice from behind her. Looking towards the sound, she saw Blake had finally closed her book and was sat alert, listening to the conversation. 

“If I had to guess, I’ll be sharing an economics class with Blake, who will likely be sharing an ethics class with Yang. So where does Ruby come into this?” The question was contemplating, not accusing, but Yang still tensed. Ruby surprised her, however, her chirpy voice proclaiming “Oh! That’s my doing. See I’m here early, they moved me ahead, and when they told me they were accepting me early I asked if I could be put in a room with Yang. Headmaster Ozpin was super nice about it and told me that I could be, so that’s why I’m in this room.” Ruby finished with a grin directed to Yang, who returned the smile easily. “That makes sense. Well, if you don’t mind, I am going to go and make a few phone calls.” With that, Weiss left the room leaving Yang, Ruby and Blake, who had already gone back to her reading. “Okay Rube Cube, we should go and check out the grounds, what do you say?” Yang proposed. An excited squeal came from her sister, who started demanding they took a look at the running track first. Yang let out a chuckle as Ruby dragged her out of the room. Blake was finally left to enjoy the silence. This would be interesting, Blake mused. The ‘Buddy System’ was designed so that you had support throughout your time at Beacon, emotional or otherwise. It was supposed to encourage students to talk about their problems and help each other out. Blake felt a twinge of guilt when she realised that she was neither going to talk to Yang about her own issues, nor help Yang out with hers. She sighed and went back to her book where she was safe.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! Please do tell me what you think about this, and feel free to point out any gramatical errors or anything like that. I hope you enjoyed this!


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Apologies in advance for how short this chapter is, I hope it's sufficient! There will be another chapter soon to make up for how brief this one is, so worry not!

“That makes sense.” Weiss glanced down to her scroll and read the time. “Well, if you don’t mind, I am going to go and make a few phone calls.” The heiress stood and left the room, scroll tight in hand, counting down the minutes until the arranged time. Then her scroll lit up as it rang, and Weiss found an easy smile sliding onto her face as the video feed connected. “Winter.” The short greeting was met with an equally short “ _Weiss_ ”. The Schnees didn’t pay mind to that however, as both knew the weight behind the words. “ _How is everything, little sister?_ ” With that Weiss started to speak. She told her sister how her room was acceptable, how she had already started to settle in, how her roommates were pleasant enough. “One of them is like you, actually.” Winter paused for a moment, and Weiss watched her face closely for any sign she had upset the woman. “ _How so?_ ” Weiss saw the curiosity, but also the knowing look in her sister’s eyes. “Well, I think she is also autistic. She has similar mannerisms that I remember you having from when we were young. Her older sister is also fiercely protective and conscious of her, much like Mother and Father were. I haven’t outright asked, but there are enough signs. I’ve been trying to figure out which things upset her without wanting to draw too much attention to it. From what I can tell, she has the same aversion to social contact that you seemed to have.” Weiss’ report to her sister was crisp and to the point. She knew her sister preferred that, and even though she was younger, she has always felt protective of Winter. She remembers how torn she felt when her sister announced she was stepping away from the family business to join the military. Her focus was pulled back to Winter as she spoke, “ _Well then it should be okay. You have always known how to help me, so if she is like me then you should be fine._ ” Weiss shook her head, “No, see she’s similar to you, but that doesn’t mean she responds to the same things in the same ways. I already put my foot in my mouth, so to speak, before I’d come to the conclusion. I yelled at her for talking too much, and she withdrew immediately, which is nothing like how you would have reacted. She also seems to be more of a fidgeter than you are.” Her voice became pensive as she spoke. Silence hung between the two women as each processed Weiss’ words. “ _Perhaps she is simply higher on the spectrum than I am._ ” Weiss nodded her agreement, “Perhaps.” 

The conversation then changed, with Weiss questioning her sister about how she was faring in the military. The sisters talked back and forth for a while, Weiss relishing the conversation, until finally Winter stated that she had duties to attend to. She hung up with a promise to schedule another time for them to talk at a later date and Weiss sighed. Her sister had given her useful advice about Ruby, even if it didn’t help her in figuring the brunette out. She sighed again, and made her way back to her dorm room. Ruby probably was higher on the spectrum than Winter, and Weiss hadn’t even picked up on it. Years and years of learning to understand her sister and help her had amounted to nothing. Even though she had apologised to Ruby she still felt guilty about her abrasiveness before, especially as she could now see how the conversation was Yang’s way of putting the girl at ease. The heiress’ mind reminded her of the Buddy System. Regardless of how ridiculous the way the pairs were assigned was, Weiss found herself glad for it. She could make this up to Ruby, she could be the best buddy the girl could ever want; there was no way Weiss Schnee would _ever_ allow herself to treat the girl the way she feared everyone would treat Winter. With this goal in mind, she approached her dorm room door, intending to begin figuring the girl out thoroughly so that she could put her plan into action, and was shocked to see it completely empty. Weiss frowned. She had no idea where _any_ of her roommates could have gone. With a resigned sigh, she sat down at her desk and decided to review her syllabus, while waiting for someone to return.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so this particlar chapter isn't my best work I don't think, but it's a necessary step to start establishing white rose. I knew I needed to put this chapter in before I can write the chapter I actually want to write, so it may have been a little forced, however I already have the next chapter planned so it should be longer and more satisfactory. Please feel free to suggest improvements!


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay! I am back! Here is a chapter from our fave dark and mysterious kitty's perspective. There isn't much bumblebee in this aside from maybe a cheeky little bit at the end (or maybe not, who knows mwahaha) but this does give us some slight backstory for Blakey. Not much though. No unnecessary exposition here. Please enjoy!
> 
> Trigger Warning: referenced self-harm and physical abuse in this chapter.

Blake sighed and closed her book. She looked around her not-so-new dorm room, taking it all in. She couldn’t believe she’d made it here, into Beacon Academy, with nothing to her name. Not one qualification, no record of ever having attended a school, nothing. Yet here she was, all thanks to her having one moment of unprecedented bravery. Ozpin had been kind to her. She never thought she’d be contacted about her application to Beacon, but he had come, personally, to see her. The look on Adam’s face that day will both haunt and amuse her for the rest of her days. Ozpin had given her a chance, a once in a lifetime opportunity for freedom, a simple entrance exam to determine whether she could get out of hell or not. All of her years spent reading to distract herself from the terrible things happening to her paid off in the end, and she found the exam marvellously easy. Ozpin marked the exam on the spot, in her living room, while Adam hovered nearby, and after revealing she had passed with flying colours arranged for her to move in with a small smile on his face. Adam had stepped in there, yelling about having to give me time to prepare and seething about springing something this important on him. Ozpin had merely raised one hand, informed Adam that classes were already underway and that this simply couldn’t wait a moment longer. Blake recalled how quickly she ran upstairs when Ozpin told her to pack her things, and how she didn’t once look back at the house that imprisoned her once she left. She also recalled her shock and gratitude when she found that Beacon Academy wasn’t even close to being ready for the mass of new students expected, let alone running classes. Ozpin informed her that he felt her living arrangements were not suitable, and had decided to let her move in early to her dorm. The panic she felt as she told Ozpin she had no money to pay for her attendance to the university, as well as the swell of messy emotions she felt when he informed her that he had personally decided to cover all of her costs for her time there, were still readily felt in her chest. That man had saved her from hell, and she did not intend to let his kindness go unrepaid.

She stood and stretched out her back, arms brushing against the ribbon in her hair as she pushed them up above her head. Her most prized possession. She indulged her impulses briefly, and allowed her fingers to gently run over the smooth material. Then she moved forward to her shared desk, pulling out her syllabus from her claimed draw. She placed it in her bag, a small black backpack that held a notebook, some pens and now her syllabus, and moved to the door, grabbing her jacket from the back of her chair. She made her way swiftly through halls that she had familiarised herself with during the weeks prior to students arriving. Eventually, she arrived at her destination, the university library. It was an impressive place, two or three stories high, bookshelves just as tall, with ladders and such to access them. More books than you could ever need, almost as many as Blake had dreamed of owning. She had been here many times already now, but the sight always stole away her breath. It was comfortable here, and she had learnt the hard way to accept comfort when it was provided, because it’s rare. Shaking herself slightly, she made her way over to the section that would be of most use for her. She pulled out her syllabus, looked over the topics on it that she wanted to study today, and then used the book directory to find the books that would be the most useful to her. 

After finding several books out, she went over to the table she had come to prefer in the library and lay out her things as she wanted them. She loved the privacy of this table, tucked away towards the back of the library, against a wall, with a window nearby letting in enough light to be comfortable. You couldn’t approach the table from anywhere else but in front of it, so she could let herself relax slightly and not fear people sneaking up from behind her. It was the perfect amount of privacy and seclusion that allowed her to relax while working. Now that all of her books were set out and she had made herself comfortable, she began the process of studying. Her thoughts drifted in and out of focus occasionally, though never for very long. Mostly, it was just her thinking about how she wished Adam could understand the material. Today she had decided to focus on studying the ethics aspect of her course, and some of the things she was reading made her realise just how bad the situation she lived in was. Adam had no understanding of ethics, and that was made clearer and clearer as she studied. She shook her head of those thoughts, left hand instinctively rubbing the ribbons on her right arm, where she knew the evidence of his lack of understanding lay. She shuddered as fear gripped her. Maybe studying ethics today was a bad idea. She knew that she had already been on edge with the prospect of meeting her roommates, and she also already knew that she sometimes got wrapped up in sadness and panic when studying ethics. She closed her books, shoulders shaking, breath heavy, and slowly piled them up. Standing, she packed away her notebook and stationary, and put on her backpack, seemingly unaware of the torrents of salty water pouring down her face. She took the books and put them back where they belonged and left the library, ignoring the concerned stare from the librarian she had befriended.

Before she could even process the panic attack she was having, her feet had carried her to the spot she had found one and a half weeks prior. It was a spot in the Emerald Forest, a luscious evergreen forest that surrounded the school grounds, where the grassy ground broke away and a river that pooled into a waterfall took its place. She loved it here. There was a peacefulness that she couldn’t explain, that wrapped its arms around her and embraced her until she found her tears stopping as her breath slowed and hitched. Glancing around to ensure she was alone, though she doubted anyone would find this place, she unravelled the ribbons around both arms and just stared. Scars criss-crossed her, cruel and gnarled, presents from Adam when she upset him mostly, though some were gifts from herself when she was at her lowest. A light breeze ruffled her clothing, and she grabbed the ribbons to stop them leaving her. Tucking them into her pocket, her hands moved to the backpack she hadn’t realised she’d taken off, opening the front pouch and pulling out a small, silver flask. She opened the flask and swallowed all of it in barely two gulps, then let out a long, calm sigh. Even if she knew it was a terrible practise, she couldn’t help but find the warm buzz and silencing of her thoughts that whiskey gave her wonderful. Placing her now empty flask back in her backpack, she lay down on the grass and let her eyes drift shut.

When her eyes opened next, she found night had fallen. Sitting up stiffly, she looked around. There was light from the large, broken moon above her, bathing the forest in an eerie white tinged with blue. She checked her scroll. Ten fifteen PM. Sighing, she stretched out and caught sight of her exposed arms in the moonlight. After re-tying her ribbons about her arms to hide the incriminating scars, she stood, grabbed her backpack, and started the short walk back to her dorm room. She spared a moment to thank herself lucky that she had woken up before the eleven PM curfew, else her roommates would be forced to inform Deputy Headmistress Goodwitch that she was not there, and that would be an uncomfortable situation. Alcohol was prohibited at Beacon, so she could not imagine being found with a flask would go too well. She returned to her room to find Weiss at her desk watching Ruby who was having an animated discussion with her sister about how much she liked the track team and how excited she was about the try-outs. Three heads turned her way as she closed the door, and she simply nodded towards the three various greetings thrown towards her. She reached her wardrobe, withdrew a set of long sleeved, long legged pyjamas and then retreated to the bathroom to shower and change after throwing her backpack onto her bed. 

Feeling refreshed after her shower, she placed her backpack under her bed, grabbed a book from the shelf nearby and began to read silently, ignoring the questioning stares from her roommates. Eventually the day’s exertions, both physical and mental, caught up to her and she fell asleep in the middle of a page. She was much too deep in sleep to even stir as the book was taken from her loose grip, a bookmark pushed between the pages as it was closed, and rested on the desk nearby.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, what did you think? I really hoped you enjoyed this! Please feel free to leave a review with any critisicms or just supportive comments as I love them all! Also please check out my latest one-shot 'Home'!
> 
> I also want to know which you prefer, shortish (1000-1500 word) chapters like this one, which I can produce more regularly, or longer (3000-7000 word) chapters that would take a little more planning and so more time between them, but would give you more stuff per update? Let me know!


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! Here is another chapter just for you guys! I think this might be the longest chapter I've written for Beacon Academy. I hope you find it sufficient! Chapters should hopefully be more frequent as I have now settled into university! But I digress, please enjoy the chapter!

The blearing of Weiss’ alarm clock dragged the young woman from the warm embrace of sleep into the cold waking world. An arm slammed down to silence the noise as a groggy grumble of frustration fell from her lips. She frowned and tried to blink away the bleariness in her eyes, stretching languidly with her arms reaching high above her head and her back arching in an almost feline manor. With the fog of sleep slowly clearing and her thoughts picking up speed, Weiss sat up, her duvet falling from her shoulders and pooling at her waist. She glanced around the room finding Blake stretching as she had moments ago and Yang still snoring heavily in her bunk. Light snorting from above her head told the heiress that her buddy was still sleeping soundly too. Swinging her legs over the side of her bed, Weiss rocked back and then leaned forward sharply, propelling herself out of bed. She stretched her body once more, arms reaching higher as she stood on her tiptoes, and then moved to her dresser. After she withdrew her chosen outfit, she walked to the shared bathroom and began to get ready for her first day of classes.

When she stepped back into the bedroom she found Blake nursing a cup of tea; a freshly made pot of black coffee was sitting on the table next to a porcelain teapot that had steam swirling up from the spout. Ruby had sat up in bed and was looking around without seeing and Yang’s snoring had stopped, though she still seemed to be sleeping. Walking to the kitchenette, Weiss poured herself a cup of coffee and thanked Blake. The raven-haired girl gave a non-committal shrug in response before taking a long sip from her tea. Weiss took her coffee over to her part of the shared desk and reviewed her schedule for the day. At 9:00 she had an introductory talk for her business management class, followed by an introduction to statistics lecture at 10:30. Then she had a three and a half hour free period followed by an introduction to economics talk at 2:00, which she supposed she shared with Blake. After that there was nothing for the day. Sipping from her coffee, she decided she would come back to the dorm during her first free time period to write up her notes from the first two lectures and then in the evening she would write up her economics notes in the lecture building’s library, drop her school things off back at the dorm and then head out into Vale for the evening. She had yet to explore the local area and as she planned to live here for the next four years she felt it would be necessary to know her way around. With that in mind, Weiss glanced at the clock reading 8:39, downed the rest of her coffee, picked up the bag she had packed the night before and left for her lecture without so much as a ‘farewell’ to her roommates.

Ruby watched the girl go, still entrapped by the glaze of one waking from a deep sleep, then turned to look at her sister, who had finally started to wake. She picked up her scroll and opened her timetable, which she had painstakingly uploaded onto the calendar app the night before, and found she didn’t have any lectures until 1:00 in the afternoon. With a sigh, the brunette jumped down from her bunk and started to get ready, thinking about reviewing the mechanics book she had picked up a few days prior. She truly loved her course and couldn’t wait to get started. 

Yang watched as her sister slunk into the bathroom and Blake left the room without a word. She sighed and dragged herself over to where the coffee pot sat, pouring herself a cup and shaking her head to rid herself of sleep. She hoped Ruby would be quick in the bathroom as she had a 10:00 class and it was now 8:59; she needed time to properly tend to her hair. As if summoned, Ruby exited the bathroom, hair sopping wet, looking very awake. She tagged out with Yang, who watched as her sister grabbed herself a bowl of some stupidly sugary cereal. Yang shook her head and let it slide. At least the girl was happy.

After Yang had bid her farewell and Ruby had finished her second bowl of cereal, the brunette pulled out her mechanics book, flipping to the section about moments around hinges and began to devour the material at her desk. The curtains swayed in the slight breeze that came from the open window, but Ruby found herself enjoying the chill and couldn’t bring herself to close the window. Even if it had been too cold, Ruby probably wouldn’t have noticed, far too absorbed in her reading. Until, after an unknown amount of time, Ruby found herself feeling panicked. At first her brow furrowed in confusion, still partially enthralled with her studies, not understanding why anxiety gripped her heart. Then the voices reached her ears, loud, overlapping and she looked up in horror. The window. It was still open as a group of boys, four of them it sounded like, were yelling and laughing loudly outside of her window. Ruby found herself frozen for a moment, not registering the racist remarks one boy made as the others guffawed at the comment. Then it hit her like a truck. Her hands reached out to the rubber she had left on her desk the night previously and she tugged and twisted rapidly as her body started to rock her slowly. Humming sounded from the girl, erratic and tuneless, as she tried desperately to focus on something, anything, that wasn’t the loud screeching of one boys laugh, or the booming of another’s voice. She rocked and rocked, stuck to her seat and eyes welded shut, unable to move to close the window.

This was the state Weiss found Ruby in when she returned from her lecture. At first the heiress was confused, standing slack-jawed in the doorway to the room, as Ruby rocked and hummed in front of her. Then a particularly loud bark of laughter sounded and Weiss saw Ruby flinch and start rocking faster and it clicked. She rushed over to the window, shut it quickly and then rushed back to Ruby, who’s rocking had slowed but not stilled. The heiress stood by Ruby’s side, rubbing circles on her back and adding her own gentle humming to the mix, until the girl stopped rocking and opened her eyes. Silver locked onto blue for a moment, before Ruby let out a long breath and swallowed. 

“Th-Thank you Weiss.” The sentence sounded strained, but there was a genuine look of gratitude in the younger girl’s eyes.

“Of course.” Weiss paused, considering whether or not she wanted to ask the question burning on her mind since she met Ruby. She decided to go ahead.

“Ruby, I have a question. Are you autistic?”

Ruby didn’t move for a moment, and Weiss feared she had upset the girl, until she saw a small cautious nod.

“Are you mad at me?” The question took Weiss completely aback and her confusion must have shown on her face as the younger girl clarified.

“Usually when people find out I’m autistic they get upset. I don’t understand why it’s such a big deal. I’m just Ruby. I just have a Ruby way of doing things, just like you have a Weiss way and Yang has a Yang way and Blake has a Blake way. Only Yang and my mum and my dad and my Uncle Qrow have ever really seemed to get it. I’m sorry if you’re mad, I try not to let it upset people.”

The solemn look on Ruby’s face broke Weiss’ heart. This was it. This was what she feared for Winter. This was what she never wanted to be true. It was proof, unquestionable proof direct from a source, that people were cruel about autism. The thought of anyone having the gall to get angry at Ruby or maybe even Winter about something that neither could control caused a ball of cold fury to settle in her stomach. She realised, however, that she hadn’t responded and that Ruby seemed to take this as confirmation that she was angry, as the brunette’s head had dropped to her chest and her arms had curled in defensively. Weiss sighed as she used Ruby’s chin to tip her head up to make eye contact. Her voice was firm, leaving no doubts about the sincerity of her words.

“Ruby I am in no way mad at you for this. There’s nothing to be mad about. You can’t help how you were born. I’m angrier about how people have treated you for this, if I’m honest. M-my older sister, Winter, is autistic. So believe me, there is nothing in me that blames you for any of this. I’m just glad I got back when I did, as I would hate to think of you suffering in here without help. Also, please feel free to talk to me about any of this. Or don’t. You can do whatever, but just understand that I will never blame you for this.”

Over the course of Weiss’ speech, Ruby’s hands slowed until she was no longer fiddling with the piece of rubber she held, instead staring at Weiss, eyes wide and jaw hanging. As the older girl spoke, Ruby found herself feeling immensely happier. Weiss understood. She wasn’t a burden on Weiss. She _understood_. When Weiss finished speaking, Ruby found herself forming a small, grateful smile. Blue met silver as they just stared at each other for a moment, content to enjoy the silence. That is until Ruby’s scroll piped up, reminding her she had a lecture to attend in 20 minutes. The young women both started at the sound and Ruby’s smile turned sheepish as she scratched at her neck near the base of her hairline.

“I, uh, I should go now. It takes fifteen minutes to get to my building from here.”

With an indulgent roll of her eyes, Weiss nodded and then motioned for Ruby to go with her hands. Ruby stopped at the door, turning back to Weiss, who had taken up her place at their desk.

“Thank you, Weiss.”

Then Ruby turned and all but ran to her lecture, leaving Weiss with a small smile that she couldn’t quite repress. The smile shifted into a contemplative frown after a moment. That was proof, an admission from the source. Weiss sat back in her chair, eyes drifting upwards, as she wondered how she would go about helping her roommate. There was no way Weiss was going to allow the girl to suffer. She had tried to protect Winter, but it hadn’t been enough, she had been stupid and careless and had allowed her temper to get the better of her far too many times. But not with Ruby. She would make up for all the ways she failed her sister with Ruby, for all three of their sakes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Just a little note about it, I drew my inspiration for this chapter from two events that happened to me a while back. 
> 
> My little brother freaked out because our neighbors were having a really loud barbeque next door and started rocking and humming as I described Ruby doing. I decided to base her mannerisms off of his (aside from the fiddling, which is my friend's coping mannerism). 
> 
> But the main content is from when I first found out about my best friend's autism. She was very scared that I would hate her for it, and I very much felt how Weiss feels. She didn't know about my brothers just as Ruby doesn't know about Winter. I felt these two experiences were perfect for what I wanted to do with this chapter. 
> 
> I want to emphasize that these were based on these two events though. They, in no way, represent everyone. If you feel I am misrepresenting anything I apologise and ask that you please let me know, as I only have my own experiences to draw from and I am far from an expert on autism. It could be that my brothers and my friend are the minority with their coping mechanisms and feelings on the matter, I have no idea. 
> 
> As always please review and thank you for reading! I'll see you with the next chapter!


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here is another chapter. Take it. Here. *dumps unceremoniously on your lap*
> 
> Jokes aside, this one is a dark-ish one friends, so please read with caution.
> 
> TW: Self-harm, briefly mentioned abusive past.

Yang had noticed that Blake didn’t spend a lot of time in the dorm room. Yang had noticed that Blake would come in a few moments before curfew, stumbling slightly. Yang had noticed that Blake only took off her bow to sleep and never wore anything that didn’t cover her arms and legs. Yang had noticed. Blake’s behaviour concerned the blonde immensely, from the way that Blake would flinch when a sound was too loud to how she would curl into herself slightly when people raised their voices around her. The blonde wasn’t stupid, she knew what Blake’s behaviour meant, she was doing a damn psychology degree so of course her buddy’s behaviour waved red flags in front of her face while prancing about nude. Blake had been hurt by someone, badly. It made Yang’s stomach twist. Blake didn’t speak much so she didn’t have much to go on, but from what she could tell the girl was a wonderful, kind-hearted person. Fiery hot rage stewed in the pit of her gut whenever she thought about who would hurt such a woman. 

It was the weekend, the first week of classes having flown by, and Yang was sat at her desk watching Blake through her peripherals. The day was still young, Ruby and Weiss were still sleeping, and Yang appeared to be studying quietly. She wasn’t of course, but she kept up the act so she didn’t scare Blake from the room. The woman only stayed around when she thought she wouldn’t be disturbed and Yang had yet to figure out how best to approach her and keep her there without simply trapping her. If her assumptions were correct then the last thing she wanted to do was try to overpower the black-haired woman; doing so would utterly destroy any chance of Blake trusting her. The last thing Yang wanted to do was make Blake fear her; in fact, she wanted to do the opposite. Call it residual instinct from looking after Ruby for so long, but Yang wanted to show Blake that she was safe, that Yang would look after her to the best of her ability, that she could let her guard down slightly and it wouldn’t send the world crashing and burning around her. She _needed_ to figure out how to approach her, quickly.

Yang heard Ruby stir in her bed, and turned to look at her briefly. Her sister was stretching and blinking sleep from her eyes in a truly adorable fashion and Yang couldn’t help the small, fond smile that creeped up on her face. Then a rustling from her right drew her attention and she saw Blake starting to pack a bag. She was going to leave. Yang frowned and made a quick decision. Slowly, subtly, Yang started packing her things away, small things that wouldn’t draw attention. Ruby got out of her bed and dragged herself to the kitchenette, probably to eat some way-too-sugary cereal, and Blake finally finished packing her bag. She swung it over her shoulder and stalked over to the door without as much as a mumbled goodbye. That was the cue. Yang shoved the rest of her things into the desk, bid Ruby a quick goodbye, and slipped out of the room. Looking down the corridor, Yang saw Blake just as she turned. She jogged over to the turn and poked her head around the side, watching until Blake turned again, then ran to the turn and repeated the process. 

A few minutes later found Yang stood outside the library. This was ok, if Blake caught her she could just claim she came to pick up a book or find some reference material for a homework assignment. She walked in and saw Blake moving towards the back of the room. ‘Of course,’ Yang thought with an amused smirk, ‘she would go to the place where there’s no one’. Yang kept her distance from Blake, watching as she found a table at the very back of the room. It was obvious that you could only get to this table from one direction, and that if Yang got closer she would be spotted. Internally cursing, she backtracked. She picked up a book for her course and found a table that was able to see the exit, but wasn’t too obvious. If Blake left she would know and if the woman spotted her she had a book that she could pretend to be studying. Momentarily, Yang cursed her stupidity in not bringing a notebook and pen to make the lie even a little more convincing. She knew she couldn’t leave now however, and just hoped that she didn’t stand out as she opened the book to a random page and began pretending to study, her eyes resting just above the book in such a manner that she could see anything near the doors.

Three hours later, Yang had almost given up on her plan, when Blake appeared in her vision. The woman was walking at a speed Yang had never seen before. Wait, was she crying? Yang shot up, abandoning the book at the table, and moved after Blake. She didn’t worry about being discreet any longer as it was clear that Blake was much too distracted to notice her. After exiting the library, Blake had started to run blindly, bumping into people as she went, and Yang began to sprint after her. One sharp turn later and Yang found herself chasing Blake outside heading towards… no. She’s not, surely? Blake barrelled forwards into the forest ahead and Yang’s eyebrows rose in shock. The students were told not to enter the forest, it was dangerous and there was poor signal so contacting people was difficult. Yang hesitated for only a moment, before surging forward behind Blake. There was no way she was going to let the woman run around in the forest on her own in that state. She saw Blake slow up ahead and did the same, suddenly cautious. Would Blake be mad that she followed her? 

Probably.

Blake came to a full stop at a clearing ahead and Yang slowed and walked to the tree line. Her breath caught in her throat as she took in the beauty of the waterfall in front of her. Then her eyes fell to Blake and her mouth fell open as the woman withdrew a pocket knife and a hip flask from the front of her bag. Yang was frozen in place as she watched Blake unwind the ribbons on her arms, revealing gnarled, angry scars, pick up the knife and bring it down hard on her lower arm near the elbow. The blonde’s eyes followed the knife as it was raised again and suddenly Yang felt herself spring into action. She heard someone yell as Blake turned, horror written on her face, and Yang took the woman’s shock as an opportunity to lunge forward and rip the knife from her hands. Blake’s breaths started to come out in heavy gasps and tears started to stream down her face as she took a shaky step away from Yang.

“What are you doing here?” came the terrified whisper, prompting Yang to speak.

“I-I was in the library, studying, when I saw you run past and you didn’t look ok. S-so I followed you, and you came in here, and I didn’t want to scare you, but then you, you had that knife and I-I-I…” Yang trailed the half-lie off as she found herself unable to finish her thought. Blake was looking at her, panic and fear written all over her face, her uninjured arm hugging her body slightly. A drop of blood caught the light and Yang realised that the cut was still weeping. She pulled a handkerchief from her pocket, thanking herself for picking up a clean one, and stepped forward slowly. Blake took another step back and Yang raised her hands in surrender.

“Easy Blake, I’m just going to clean that up, ok?” 

Yang stayed in place, eyes pleading, until Blake nodded, jerky and unsure. Moving slowly, as one would with an injured animal, Yang approached Blake and started to put pressure on the wound. 

“You wouldn’t happen to have anything I could wrap this with, would you?”

Blake stepped back slightly, bent down, and pulled a bandage from the pocket she pulled the knife from.

“The ribbons hide the bandages.” was the croaked out explanation. Yang simply nodded, taking the bandages and wrapping the wound securely. She knew that it would need better treatment later, but for now she was more concerned with stopping the bleeding and calming Blake down. After she finished securing the bandage, she held Blake’s arm loosely and tried to look into her eyes. Blake was looking everywhere but at Yang, shaking and trying to fight back more tears. 

“Blake, I’m not mad and I’m not going to tell anyone.”

Shocked amber eyes snapped to Yang’s face.

“Y-You’re not?”

Yang shook her head, lead Blake over to the edge of the bank and gently tugged the woman down to sit with her. They sat in silence for a while, Blake slowly regaining control of her breathing and crying, Yang happy to just sit, holding Blake’s arm and staring into the waterfall. Only once Blake had finally seemed to calm down did Yang speak up again.

“Blake. Look I know you don’t know me very well and I know you’re trying to avoid us, but it’s ok. I-I’m not going to ask you to tell me why, because I don’t need to know that. I can tell something has hurt you and if you want to tell me I will listen gladly, but I will never pressure you into talking about it. But please. Next time you feel the urge to, to hurt yourself, just, just come to me. I-I might not know about the situation, but I know that just being with someone can help when you’re panicking. Just please try not to do this again. I will help you in every way I can Blake. You can cry on me, you can punch and kick and scream at me if it makes you feel better, but please. Please don’t hurt yourself. You are in control. Here at the Academy you are the one in control. You don’t need to hurt yourself to feel in control anymore.”

At some point during Yang’s speech, Blake had begun crying again. Yang brought a hand up to her back and rubbed soothing circles between her shoulder blades and Blake just crumpled into Yang’s side. The blonde collected Blake up in a hug as the girl cried out all of her pain. The two sat like that for some time, basking in the comfort from one another’s presence. 

“My parents died when I was young. I was picked up off the street by a bad man. He… he hurt me a lot.” came a harsh whisper from the girl cradled in Yang’s arms.

Yang waited, but nothing more came, so she tightened her hug slightly and whispered back.

“He can’t hurt you now. I won’t let him.”

After that the two lapsed into a comfortable silence, until Blake’s stomach grumbled and Yang let out a quiet chuckle. Yang helped Blake wrap her arms back up in her ribbons, and helped Blake remove the traces of her crying from her face with her partially bloody handkerchief. Yang picked up the knife and flask, and looked Blake in the eyes before emptying the flask on the ground, handing it back to her, and pocketing the knife. Blake didn’t protest any of these actions, much too emotionally drained to care. The two traipsed back to their dorm room, Yang promising to make the woman her favourite meal. As the two entered their room, they were met with the sight of Ruby and Weiss playing cards, each sat with a bowl of cheese pasta bake. Ruby cheerfully greeted Yang, who noticed that her sister’s rubber was sat on the floor beside her completely ignored, and Weiss nodded her head in the new arrivals’ direction. She noticed Blake move towards the kitchenette and watched as she started preparing some tea. Taking that as her cue, she began to make some tuna pasta bake for herself and Blake.

Sometime in the evening found the four girls sat in the room conversing quietly. Ruby and Weiss had requested Yang join them for cards and begged Blake to play too. Yang beamed at how relaxed Ruby had become around Weiss, and at how Blake had relaxed enough to play the game with them. She took note of how quiet the woman was with the other half of their room and with how close she was sitting to Yang, but decided not to mention it. Progress was progress and she would hate to ruin it by sticking her foot in her mouth. Weiss eventually pointed out that it was late and Yang suggested they sleep. Ruby looked at her curiously, but she shrugged it off, telling her sister that she had hit the gym hard today. Ruby nodded unconvinced, but complied anyway. As Weiss and Ruby started to prepare for bed, Yang felt a small tug on her shirt sleeve and looked to see Blake looking at her. She leaned in and whispered one word into her ear, before starting to prepare herself.

“Thanks.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoyed that slightly heavy chapter guys. I'm trying to make longer chapters for you all to enjoy. Please feel free to point out any errors (grammatical or spelling or otherwise) that I may have missed because I will definitely have missed something or gotten something wrong. Please review and leave kudos! I hope you enjoyed!


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here we go, as promised, the next chapter of Beacon Academy! To those who haven't read my other two on-going stories, and therefore didn't see my explanation, allow me to reiterate. I apologise for the much-too-late chapter! I've recently just got over a particularly nasty bout of freshers flu that had incapacitated me for the last while. I had written a chapter while I was ill, but frankly, it was awful. This update is the same chapter that was awful, except I fixed all of the terrible things that occured (such as my disgusting grammar and my inability to stick to the plan). Without further ado, here we are, chapter 7! Enjoy!

It was seven thirty in the evening, a Tuesday, two days after Yang had found Blake in the forest, when Ruby tumbled into the shared dorm in a tracksuit, sweating and red in the face but beaming ear to ear. She rushed over to her wardrobe, withdrew a t-shirt and some jeans and dashed to the bathroom without saying a word to the three other occupants in the room, who had watched her with varying degrees of amusement and curiosity. The shower turned on and a happy humming carried into the room, causing Yang to smirk, but otherwise not effecting the room. Twenty minutes later the shower shut off, clothes rustled and Ruby left the bathroom looking contented. She climbed up onto her bunk, flopped back and released a happy sigh. 

“I take it practise went well?” Yang questioned from her seat at her desk, laughter written in her raised eyebrow and partially curved lips.

“It. Was. Wonderful!”

Yang let out a happy chuckle at the look of bliss on her sister’s face. Ruby may not be partial to many activities but running was something that had always invigorated her. Memories of Ruby sprinting around the house as Summer, Taiyang or Yang herself chased the giggling bundle of energy around flashed through Yang’s mind. Once Ruby started high school and found there was a sport dedicated to running really fast, she became obsessed. Now it would be difficult for Yang to imagine her sister without running, just as it would be strange to picture herself as anything other than a boxer. 

“Practise for what?” 

Weiss’ curiosity cut through Yang’s reminiscing and reminded Yang of a task she had neglected. Before she could speak up, however, Ruby sat up and swung herself over the side of her bunk to look at Weiss so quickly that Yang’s heart jumped into her throat.

“I’m a runner! I was at the track team practise today because they finally got back to me and told me I passed try-outs and made the A team! I beat my personal best today and it was amazing!” Ruby let out an excited giggle and swung herself back up and collapsed back onto her back. “I can’t believe I made the A team.” This statement was one of quiet wonder, seemingly not supposed to be heard by the rest of the room.

“You know, now that I think about it, we really don’t know a lot about each other, do we? I mean we know each other’s names and courses, but we really don’t know anything about personal interests or anything like that. We should get to know each other a little bit, ‘cause I mean we’ll be living with each other for four years.” 

Weiss nodded at Yang, “I agree, that actually reminds me, I was curious. Blake? Why do you always wear that bow? I only ever see you take it off to sleep…” Weiss trailed off at the panic-stricken look that flitted across Blake’s face and began to retract the question, when Blake shook her head and let out a heavy sigh. 

“M-My dad gave it to me when I was younger. He loved seeing me wear it, I overheard him one night telling my mum how cute I was in my bow. I-” Blake took another deep breath and shook her head once more. “It’s the only thing from him I have. My parents d-died. When I was younger. They were killed. Caught up in a hostage situation at the bank or something, I don’t know, I was at school when it happened. I-I wear it to remember him.” Blake fell silent, surprised at herself for being so forthcoming.

Silence fell over the room, then heavy breathing sounded and Weiss, Yang and Blake turned to see Ruby sat hunched over, clutching her knees with her eyes screwed shut, drawing slow deep breaths through her teeth. Yang was up and holding Ruby in a tight hug before the other two could even register her moving. They heard Yang quietly muttering soothing phrases, ‘You’re okay’ and ‘It’s alright Ruby’, over and over, while a hand rubbed circles on Ruby’s back and an arm pulled the younger girl into Yang’s chest. Weiss and Blake shared a worried and confused glance, before focusing back on the sisters. Yang spoke slowly.

“Our mother died when we were younger. She was killed in a car crash by some drunk, idiot driver. I was ten and Ruby was eight. We… We don’t like to think about it too much.”

Yang fell silent as she continued to hold Ruby, whose breathing had started to return to normal. Weiss let out a shaky sigh and Ruby looked up, her eyes glistening.

“Well, I suppose if we’re all talking about it. My mother died when I was thirteen. Liver failure.” She let out a short, humourless laugh. “Ironic how we were all put together, isn’t it?” Another short laugh. Yang let out a long sigh.

“Alright, let’s change the subject shall we? When I said I wanted to get to know you better, I meant your interests not your traumas. There will be plenty of time for that later. Weiss, what do you do for fun, besides studying that is?” Weiss glared at the humoured lilt that coloured the end of Yang’s question, though the look eased as Ruby chuckled a little.

“I’m a fencer. The box under my bed that you’re all not allowed to touch? It has my sword in it. Myrtenaster.” A fond smile graced the heiress’ face at the mention of her weapon’s name. “I’ve fenced since I was a lot younger. It’s been encouraged by my father for as long as I can remember. There aren’t many sports that are as elegant.” Without realising it, Weiss had swelled with pride. 

Yang looked at the heiress with a mix of surprise and respect, as well as a subtle hint of amusement. Figures the Princess would even make a sport fancy. Still, it was unmistakeable, the glee that radiated off the smaller woman as she spoke. That was something Yang could understand. While it wasn’t as ‘elegant’ as her fencing, Yang’s love for boxing rivalled her love for Ruby; it filled her with a buzz that she simply couldn’t explain. Yang’s head swivelled to Blake as she spoke.

“I’m a gymnast. I haven’t really looked at the gymnastics society here, but I’ve been doing gymnastics for years. I used to do it with my mother. I’m just not sure the society here is right for me.”

“Why’s that?” Weiss couldn’t fathom why Blake wouldn’t join the society of the sport if it was dear to her heart.

“Well… I’m a competitor. I don’t think the societies that exist here compete.”

“So? If you enjoy it enough you don’t need to compete. The fencing society here doesn’t compete either, and while I am also used to competitions in my sport, I love fencing too much to let that one inconvenience stop me. If needs be, I’ll simply compete as an individual on my own time.” 

Blake was perplexed. Silly as it sounds, she had never considered gymnastics as something she could do for fun. Adam only let her continue with it when he figured out she was good and could make him money from it. She shuddered slightly as she thought his name, but no one seemed to take note. ‘Maybe I _should_ take a look at the societies here?’. 

“Well, my thing is a little less _elegant_ than you guys’. I’m a boxer. Sure, most people think it’s barbaric and that I’m a brute or something, and I guess I can’t argue, but when I box I feel alive. Plus, it’s so physical that I have no choice but to be ripped, which the ladies _lurve_.” Yang punctuated her statement with a wink and a flex of an admittedly impressive bicep. Blake fought back a smirk as Weiss rolled her eyes and Ruby fake gagged, though the battle was lost when Yang turned a massive, shit-eating grin towards her. Blake didn’t know who started laughing first, but eventually giggles had consumed the room. 

After it quieted down slightly, Ruby took her chance to speak. 

“Well for me it’s simpler than all that. I just have a lot of energy that I can’t really do much with for the most part. I’m kind of clumsy so can’t do most sports and I’m not so good with people so I can’t burn the energy by being social. Honestly, when I found out that athletics was a thing in high school it was like a gift from above. I couldn’t imagine my life without it.” The awe in her sentences was picked up by the rest of the room, who couldn’t help but smile at such an adorable sense of wonderment. Ruby Rose was truly an adorable girl, Blake mused to herself. Catching the look on Weiss’ face, she assumed they shared the thought. 

“Oh hey! If we all need to get to know each other better we should plan a trip into Vale! We could go this weekend! I think I heard that there was a fair going on in the city centre. The Vytal festival or something? It would be a great way for us to hang out properly!” 

Yes, there was no denying it now. Ruby Rose was an adorable puppy of a girl, her wide, silver eyes sparkling as she leaned over her bed slightly to look at everyone, a mile-wide grin plastered onto her hopeful face. The heiress looked as if she were going to refuse and, as if sensing so, Ruby leant even further forward and fixed the poor woman with her most impossible-to-refuse puppy-eyed look that she had. The two locked eyes for a moment, as Yang and Blake watched, Yang’s grin matching that of her sister’s just moments before, and then a most hard-done-by sigh fell from Weiss’ lips. With a roll of her eyes and a cross of her arms, the woman mumbled a gruff ‘fine’ as Ruby squealed in joy. 

“Yes! This is going to be great! We’re all going to be the best friends ever!”

Well, you can’t really blame the smiles that followed that statement. Innocence like that was as infectious as it was cute.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoyed! Chapters should be more frequent now, at the very least you should get one once a week. I am writing some other fics though so I can't promise much more than that. For those who are unawares, you should go and check out Sick Days (for some ridiculous WhiteRose fluff) and After Effects (for some more angsty WhiteRose and Bumblebee)! Sick Days has been recently updated and I just posted the first chapter of After Effects! As always please leave a kudos and/or a review if you've enjoyed and I will see you with the next chapter!


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one isn't as long as the last one, I don't think, but here it is. I may end up editing and reuploading this one as I'm not 100% about it, but I'll leave that to you guys. Let me know? Enjoy!
> 
> Edit: Okay! So I wasn't 100% happy with this one, so I've gone through it and tried to fix the pacing and a few of the inconsistencies in it, so here is a reupload! If there's anything else I've missed feel free to point it out to me!

The thing about that innocence was it made you want to protect it. Ruby was a pure beacon of light and Blake found herself with protective instincts that she had never felt before. She was an only child, her parents taken from her before they could provide her with a sibling to dote on. So when Blake returned to her dorm to find Yang panicked and pacing, holding two scrolls, the surge of protectiveness that washed over her was foreign and confusing. She knew that whatever had the blonde worked up was to do with Ruby just as well as she knew that the second scroll was Ruby’s. She let the door fall shut behind her, the firm bang having the desired effect on her buddy. Yang stopped and turned to Blake, frozen for a moment, before bounding forward and grabbing Blake by the shoulders. Involuntarily, Blake tensed, which Yang spotted immediately, backing off slightly. She ran a hand through her hair before speaking.

“Blake have you seen Ruby? I can’t find her, and she left her scroll, and a few kids said there was an altercation in the dining hall, and I don’t think that’s a coincidence and I don’t know what to do, I have her scroll, she doesn’t have it, how am I going to-”

“Yang, breathe. You need to calm down and think.” She heard, more than saw, the deep breath Yang drew, before nodding.

“Right, so have you called Weiss? She and Ruby seem to spend a fair bit of time together, more so than Ruby and I do. Maybe she knows where Ruby is?” Yang started shaking her head.

“I tried that, she wouldn’t answer her scroll. Straight to voicemail, so she’s either set to ‘do not disturb’ or her scroll’s off.” Blake nodded at the response.

“Okay. So, think about it. Where would Ruby go? Can you think of somewhere she would think is safe? If she’s upset it will probably be somewhere people wouldn’t just stumble upon.”

Yang bobbed her head, half distracted by her thoughts. A few moments passed before her nodding slowed to a stop.

“Alright, I have some ideas for places. Would… Would you come with me? I- Two people have a higher chance of finding her than one.” _And I can’t keep calm on my own right now._ The unspoken part was heard by both of them. Silently, Blake nodded once. After everything Yang had granted her so far, she could do this in return; it didn’t hurt that she also wanted to make sure Ruby was safe, even if she barely knew the younger girl. Yang grabbed her by the hand and pulled her from the room. 

Firstly, Yang dragged them towards the surrounding forests, though to a different part than where she had found Blake three days prior. They moved silently, eyes and ears alert for any sign of their roommate. Yang led them to three spots in the forest, explaining that the two found them together the day after initiation so Ruby had a place to go if she needed one. Yang had frowned as she said this, clearly unhappy that Ruby had decided to ignore the established safe area, so Blake pointed out that if Weiss was with her she might not want to take her into the forest. That seemed to ease the blonde slightly. They left the forest and made their way to the courtyard, looking in all of the nooks and crannies for places that Ruby could have hidden. Blake could sense Yang’s growing panic and aggravation the longer they went without sight of the younger girl. Just as Yang seemed to be about to growl in frustration, part of a conversation floated over to them.

“I know right! I mean she’s just a kid, they were so cruel!”

“I feel bad for her, I mean Cardin is an arse in general, but he really went out of his way this time.”

“I just hope the poor kid is alright.”

“Yeah, same. I think she’ll be okay though, her buddy was on the roof with her last I saw. I didn’t think it was my place to interrupt them y’know?”

The rest of the conversation never reached Blake’s ears as Yang dragged her from the courtyard, bolting towards the roof. Barely thirty seconds passed before they burst through the entrance onto the roof and saw Ruby cuddled up in Weiss’ arms, her upset written on the tear-stained shocked face that had turned towards the door. If Weiss was surprised by their entrance she hid it well. Yang launched forward and pulled Ruby into her arms, cradling her like a small child and rocking her slightly, a lone arm rubbing up and down the younger girl’s back. 

“What happened?” Yang’s voice was gruff, likely the result of her frustrations and worries.

Ruby looked to Weiss, with pleading eyes, who simply nodded and began to explain.

“Short version, Cardin is a disgrace to the human race who deserves to take a very long walk off a very short pier.”

Ruby chuckled, though it was weak, and Yang shot her a grateful half-smile. Then it fell into a frown.

“Okay, so, long version?”

Weiss sighed as she delved into the specifics. She described how Cardin has shoved Ruby around, hurling insults at her, knocking her food out of her hands and tripping her. Her fists clenched when she divulged that Cardin had picked Ruby up by the scruff of her neck, pinned her against a wall and started to attack her. It was at that point that she had arrived and lost her temper, screaming at Cardin to release her and kicking the backs of his knees when he refused. Weiss took a steadying breath, before continuing. 

“After he was down I helped Ruby off the floor and brought her up here to gather herself before I sorted this out.”

“Sorted this out?” Yang’s head tilted slightly in question and Blake was reminded strongly of a puppy. Weiss nodded rapidly.

“Do not think for a moment that I will allow him to get away with this. He needs to be punished and he needs to learn that if he lays a hand on Ruby again he will lose it. I will not tolerate bullies.” While Yang looked at Weiss with nothing but appreciation and respect, Ruby shook her head ferociously.

“Weiss noo, we talked about this! I don’t need you to go on some revenge mission for me, you helped me feel better and that’s enough! I don’t want to make it worse.”

“As much as I would like to see Cardin suffer, I have to agree with Ruby on this. We should take this to a member of staff and have it dealt with properly, rather than doling out justice like vigilantes.” Blake had no idea where that came from, and it was clear by the looks on the others’ faces that they didn’t either. She blushed slightly under their gazes, but shrugged. They all remained silent for a while, mulling everything over, when Ruby spoke up again.

“Y-Yang?” She received a hum in response. “I need you to help me wash mum’s scarf.” Yang stared wide-eyed as Ruby withdrew a stained and dirtied red scarf from her jacket pocket, the arm on Ruby’s back stilling.

“They started picking on me because I was hugging it. I-I was nervous, it was really loud in the cafeteria and I had it and it reminds me of mum so I was just running it through my hands when they took it and stamped on it and rubbed food on it and now it’s dirty and I-” The sentence tailed off with a choked sob as Ruby turned into Yang’s embrace more and Yang clutched tighter at her sister. Blake could have sworn Yang’s eyes flickered red, as her expression fell into poorly concealed rage. Looking over at Weiss provided a similar view, her eyes narrowed and teeth bared slightly. Reaching up and smoothing her fingers against the soft material of her bow, Blake felt anger build within her too. 

“Screw what I just said. We’re going to get even with him. Tonight.”

* * *

The plan was set. Ruby had left to get buckets, strings and spray paint, Blake had gone to track Cardin and his friends, Yang had gone to pick his dorm room door and Weiss had gone to get pigs’ blood. Blake was still concerned that Weiss knew how to get pigs blood, short notice and in bulk, but shrugged it off in favour of getting revenge on a pitiable excuse for a human being. A text told her that the plan was set, so Blake left Cardin to boast about his sexual prowess to his friends and made her way back to the dorm building. Ruby had lent them one of her cameras to film it, so they didn’t have to be anywhere near the room when everything happened. Instead the camera was nestled in a tree near the window in Cardin’s room. Ruby, Weiss, Blake and Yang were sat around Ruby’s scroll as it transmitted the image of Cardin’s room. The camera didn’t record as that would have been incriminating and they had all agreed that this needed to be done discreetly. If they were caught they would face serious repercussive action. 

The handle in Cardin’s room moved down and the four women unconsciously moved closer to Ruby’s scroll. Cardin stepped in, apparently in mid-boast, when the bucket of pigs’ blood suspended above the door by string fell on him, coating him head to toe. He seemed to scream as he stumbled into the room, his hands trying to wipe the fluids from his face and out of his mouth. In his blind stumbling, he moved forward into some more string, a few feet from the entrance to the room, and fell into a puddle of pigs’ blood, splattering it around the room. As he tried to stand, his friends entered the room looking cautious and afraid, allowing the door to close and the red spray-painted word on the back to be visible.

‘BULLY.’

Glancing around the room, it became apparent that this was not the only descriptive word spray painted in the dorm, but it was by far the kindest. Cardin seemed to have a fit of rage, arms flailing as he dished out orders to his roommates, all the while unawares of the four girls laughing maniacally at his misfortune. 

“I still think the pigs’ blood was a little far… but thanks guys. Thanks for sticking up for me.” Ruby found herself enveloped in three pairs of arms.

* * *

When Ozpin entered the room and inspected the damage a few hours later, he took a sip from his mug and arched an eyebrow. The occupants of the room waited expectantly as he lowered his mug and drew in a breath.

“If this isn’t all cleaned up properly by the end of today you’ll lose your security deposits boys. I don’t want to see a single stain.” Then he turned and left, leaving the room’s inhabitants gaping after him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay so what do you think? I can't tell if the pacing is alright, or if it's a bit rushed. Honest reviews about it are welcomed and benefit both me and you guys. If you think it needs more work tell me and you can get a nicer fic. I hope you enjoyed!
> 
> Edit: So yeah, I don't really have more to say. In fact I probably have less to say because I think I fixed the pacing. I'm just gonna go now...


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey hey heyyy! Guess who's back from the dead with another chapter? This gal! I'll see y'all in the end notes, so for now, enjoy!

News of the prank had somehow leaked to the University population, resulting in a very subdued Cardin Winchester hiding from people lest he face taunting pig sounds or rambunctious laughter. Ruby, with help from the rest of her roommates, had managed to clean and stitch up her mother’s scarf so that it looked as good as new. Initially, she had been tempted to leave it in her room, not wanting to risk it being damaged once more, but her roommates insisted she do otherwise. The University didn’t have a uniform so Ruby would be perfectly fine to wear the scarf with her usual outfit and Ruby shouldn’t let Cardin bully her into leaving something behind that brought her comfort. Ruby was surprised that the vehement argument had come from Blake, someone who she had barely spoken to thus far. Still, it’s not like she _wanted_ to leave the scarf behind so the argument was effective. 

Despite what had happened, Ruby found herself glowing. Her scarf was okay, which brought her mood up considerably, but her excitement stemmed from the fact that she knew tomorrow she was going to go with her sister and new friends to the Vytal Festival. Back at home in Patch, Ruby had only ever dreamed about going to the festival, longing building in her every year she had to watch from the comforts of her settee. Now, however, she would be right there in the thick of things, and she had to make a conscious effort to not squeal like a much younger Ruby would have every time the thought crossed her mind. On top of all of this, Ruby was excelling at her classes, her unbridled passion propelling her through the content at ridiculous speeds. Yang liked to tease her, saying nonsense like her ‘genius is showing’, but Ruby knew it was nothing like that; she simply loved her subject so much she couldn’t do anything _but_ study it. These warm, fuzzy feelings swirled around her mind, the only outward indication of them being the soft smile that Ruby wore as she set her lunch down at a vacant table.

* * *

When Yang walked into the dinner hall she immediately tried to find her sister, eyes sifting through the masses for the person she would recognise anywhere. Said eyes settled on her sister’s back, watching as the girl laughed uproariously at something an energetic red-head was saying; or at least Yang thought it was her speaking, if the vigorous gestures and overdramatic stances were anything to go by. Making her way over to her sister, Yang slung an arm around Ruby’s shoulders with a cheery ‘Hey Rubes!’ before sitting down on the free seat next to the girl. Yang smiled as Ruby returned her greeting with an enthusiastic smile, before questioning where Yang’s lunch was. 

“Ah don’t worry about it, I’ve got time to eat later. You gonna introduce me to your friends or…?” Yang trailed off expectantly.

“Oh! Of course, sorry! Yang these guys are our neighbours: Jaune Arc, Nora Valkyrie, Pyrrha Nikos and Lie Ren! They’re in the room across from ours. Guys this is my big sister, Yang Xiao Long!”

Yang nodded her head towards the four with a wide smile; anyone who made Ruby so obviously comfortable was golden in her books. She was just about to ask more about the four when Blake and Weiss joined them at the table, each with trays of food; their joint economics class had just let out. Introductions were given out again, this time enlightening Yang to their subjects. Jaune studied Modern Foreign Languages, sharing a class with Ren who took Psychology with French. Yang realised that she shared a class with Ren and was quick to point that out, much to the amusement of the quiet boy who informed her that he had noticed her napping at the back. Sheepishly, she rubbed the back of her neck, ignoring the pointed look from her sister and motioning for the conversation to progress. Nora studied Electrical Engineering and shared an energy class with Pyrrha, who took Physics with Energy and Environment. Before much more could be discussed, Ruby piped up with a proposal.

“You guys should totally come with us to the Vytal Festival tomorrow! We were going as a room, but it would be super great if you guys could come too!”

The conversation quickly became a planning battleground that Yang decided to step back from; no doubt Ruby would let her know what the final strategy would be. Instead Yang took a moment to appreciate the initiative her sister was showing by inviting them in the first place. It made her smile to see her sister so at ease and making new friends without prodding. It also helped that she quite liked her sister’s new friends; they were all great people in their own ways. Nora was hilarious and was someone Yang could definitely become good friends with, Jaune was a funny, if not slightly awkward, boy who had definitely taken a shine to Ruby. Furrowing her brow, Yang thought about that for a moment. He better not take _too much_ of a shine to her. She was snapped from her thoughts by an elbow and a concerned look from her sister, which she shrugged off with an effortless grin. Later, she decided. She’ll keep her eye on Jaune for now and if needs be let him know just how off limits her baby sister was. 

Or… maybe not. Yang’s entire plan was derailed by an obnoxiously flirty comment from the boy in question directed not at her darling little sister, but her sister’s buddy, who had clenched her jaw so tight a mild concern about her teeth fluttered in the back of Yang’s mind. The blonde let out a guffawing laugh as the heiress gave a short, cold ‘No.’ with a full stop you could hear, proceeding to slam a fist on the table as Weiss then turned from a slack-jawed Jaune to speak to Ruby as if nothing had happened. At least Jaune wasn’t interested in Ruby then, though given her sister had told her she was gay a year or so ago, Yang supposed she probably didn’t have much to worry about anyway, unless Jaune was unable to take the answer he’s given of course. A quick glance at her watch informed Yang that she needed to grab a bite to eat before her next lecture, so she excused herself briefly to grab a tray.

* * *

Weiss was irked. Secretly, she had been looking forward to the excursion to the Vytal Festival with her roommates due to both her wish to get to know Ruby better and simply because the business mind she harboured marvelled at the planning necessary for the festival. Unfortunately, her little dolt of a buddy had to go and invite the people from the room across from them. Honestly, she wasn’t too perturbed by Nora, Ren or Pyrrha, but that blonde boy, Jaune, made her grind her teeth in irritation. The dunce thought he was oh-so-charming with the nicknames and what he thought was smooth talking. After she had finished her lunch, she had stayed in the dinner hall to please a rare urge to socialise, however once Ruby announced she had to make her way to her next lecture, the need was doused and she also stood to leave. _Jaune_ felt it was prudent to walk her back to her room as if she was some damsel in distress or a poor lost urchin, despite her many protests. That entire journey had stretched her patience so thin that it was one-dimensional. The moron seemed to be completely unable to get it through his thick skull that she wasn’t interested and no, she didn’t give a damn about the fact he had seven sisters and was ‘great at looking after long hair’. The relief she felt at reaching her room and being able to slam the door in his face was palpable.

Sighing, she pushed herself from the half-slouch she had taken against the door and pulled out her books. Setting herself up at the desk, she prepared herself for an intense study session; she had a maths test coming up and calculus was not one of her strong suits. Why did she even need it anyway? You don’t use calculus in business. Unless it becomes relevant for her statistics class later? Weiss shook away the distracting thoughts; regardless of the reason, she had to learn it. With renewed effort, she started on the problems again, pausing occasionally to refer to her textbook or check over her answers. Once she was certain that she had the concepts nailed, she moved onto presentation and structuring answers; it would not do her well to know the material if she lost marks because her examiner couldn’t follow her working. Briefly, she wondered how Ruby dealt with that aspect of assessment. They share a desk, so Weiss had seen first-hand the chicken scratch her buddy tried to pass off as handwriting, not to mention how the girl seemingly wrote all over the page, jumping from corner to corner as she added to her thoughts or amended her workings. Honestly, how the girl makes heads or tails of her lecture notes baffles Weiss; there’s no structure to them, not even a clear path, though the results can’t be argued with. A fond smile works its way onto Weiss’ mouth as she recalled the 100 Ruby waved at her sister in the first week for her course’s placement test, a test with the intention of showing the students what pre-course material they needed to work on in their own time. Weiss let out a low growl as she realised she had gotten distracted again, reached for her ear plugs and started her study playlist. 

Before she realised it, three hours had passed and all of her roommates had traipsed back in at various points over that time, with Ruby being the last one in. Still, she kept at her work, only pausing to move some of her things out of the way so Ruby could set up some work on her own side of the table. She set down ‘Mathematical Techniques’, a moderately sized text book, and began her own study of much more complex mathematics than that which Weiss was working on. Now that she had the background noise of her roommates, she forwent her earphones; they provided suitable white noise and she wanted to be able to hear if they were to address her. Time passed like this for a while, Weiss and Ruby studying diligently, Blake reading (to no-one’s surprise) and Yang typing away at something on her laptop. Three sharp raps at the door brought them all out of their haze and Weiss, being closest to the door, opened it. Jaune stood, guitar in hand, and began to sing some silly song at her. She barely made out the request to join him for dinner over her mounting irritation. Finally, his tuneless singing seemed to end with a few stupidly unnecessary strums of his guitar.

“Are you done?” She questioned, her voice measured. Jaune nodded, looking slightly perplexed and nervous at this reaction. Some part of Weiss felt a little bad for the boy, who was in the very least making an effort, but that part was crushed by the part that reminded her she had already said no. Multiple times in fact. 

“Good. Then I will say this once more, and only once. I. Am not. Interested. I will not go on a date with you, because I do not want to and if you ask me again I will _make sure_ you get the hint. Do you understand me or shall I repeat myself _again_?” The cool calm she wished to portray cracked under the pressure of the irritation lying underneath. Honestly, didn’t this boy get it? No means no, it’s really not a difficult concept. Jaune gulped then opened his mouth and raised an arm as if he was going to respond. With an irritated growl and a roll of her eyes, she slammed the door in his face, then stomped back over to her desk and picked up her pen once more. All of her drive had gone however, her mind now unable to go back to that blissful zone where she could study due to the frustration and anger swirling within her. With another low growl, she dropped her pen, grabbed some sportswear from her wardrobe and went to change in the bathroom. When she emerged she reached under her bed, withdrew the case containing her rapier and left for the training rooms, dutifully ignoring the concerned stares of her other roommates. As she opened the door she found Jaune was still standing outside. She bit back a snarl, and marched passed him praying that he would not follow. Practising her fencing techniques will help her find her focus, she was sure.

* * *

Blake watched as the heiress stomped away, leaving the door wide open and allowing her to see Jaune, who looked like he was about to pursue Weiss. That is until Yang’s sharp ‘Jaune’ stopped him in his tracks. Looking over to her friend, Blake was taken aback by the intensity of the normally cheerful blonde’s glare. Glancing over, she saw even Ruby looked annoyed, though it manifested in a way that made her look uncomfortable more than anything. Jaune took one step into the room, looking at Yang questioningly, however it was Ruby that spoke up.

“You really should leave Weiss alone Jaune. I know you’re a good guy, but you’re being a bit… pushy.” Ruby looked sheepish as she tried to find the words, but Yang had no problem speaking her mind.

“Ruby’s too nice to say it properly, but I’m not. I wanna like you Jaune, but you need to back the hell off ‘cause you’re making Weiss uncomfortable. She said no, so respect that and leave her alone. If you don’t we’re going to have problems, and I didn’t win the youth boxing championships back home four years in a row for my looks.”

Even Ruby looked cowed by Yang’s statement, which was punctuated by a furrowed brow and tightly crossed arms. Jaune swallowed once more, looking slightly paler, before nodding and closing the door. The tension in the room immediately snapped, with Ruby breathing out a sigh of relief and Yang relaxing her arms. 

“Do you think Weiss is okay or should we go find her?” Ruby had picked up the little piece of rubber Blake had seen her with and started fiddling with it while looking between her sister and the door. She hadn’t outright asked, but she’d seen her do this enough times to figure out that it was some sort of coping mechanism for when the girl was nervous. Not that Blake judged her for that considering her own coping mechanisms were… well in the very least she was glad Ruby had a safe way to let her nerves out. Yang broke through her thoughts with a shake of her head and a spoken comfort for her sister.

“Nah Rubes, she left so she could work it out on her own. She looked like she was gonna work out or something, so it’s probably best we leave her be. She’ll come back when she feels better, but if we go now we might upset her more. We’ll ask how she is when she gets back but we shouldn’t push. For now it’s best if we just wait.” With that Ruby nodded and both girls went back to their respective tasks. Blake just sat for a moment, taking the time to absorb what just happened, before mentally shrugging and then going back to her book. Then a thought, a concern that confused her, began to niggle at her enough to force her to lower her book.

“… What’s going to happen tomorrow then?”

Ruby looked up at Blake, processing her words before her eyes widened and she looked towards her sister.

“I didn’t think of that! Oh no, Yang what do we do? I don’t want Weiss to be uncomfortable, but I don’t want to have to disinvite just Jaune!” Clearly, the calm Yang had instilled earlier had been removed as now Ruby began to rapidly tug at the rubber in her hand and her knee also started to bounce. Blake shrunk back a little, feeling guilty for upsetting the younger girl, and worriedly looked towards Yang. 

“Don’t worry about it Rubes, we can talk to Weiss when she gets back. She’s a civil person, so I’m sure something can be worked out. But let’s not talk about this anymore, okay? There’s nothing to be done now.” She shoots a pointed look towards Blake, who nods apologetically and all but buries herself in her book. 

Another hour or so passes before Weiss comes back, slightly red in the face wearing a carefully neutral expression and another half an hour passes while the heiress showers and changes. She then retakes her seat and places her earbuds in; a very obvious sign that she doesn’t want to be disturbed. Blake looks to Yang, who meets her eyes and then shrugs. However, before any girl can truly start their tasks again the door goes. Yang lets out a frustrated sigh and jumps up to open the door as Weiss hadn’t acknowledged it. She does acknowledge Jaune standing there looking downcast, however, if the souring of her expression is anything to go by. Yang stares him down, arms crossed, and Ruby stands to move protectively in front of Weiss, much to Weiss’ clear surprise.

“What do you want, Arc?” Yang all but growls. Jaune does look a little scared, but pushes on regardless.

“I-I wanted to ap-apologise to Weiss.” He turned to the heiress, who had removed her earphones and arched an alabaster brow. Clearing his throat once more, he continued, “I am truly sorry for my behaviour today. I didn’t intend to make you uncomfortable, but I realise I came on a bit strong,” to his credit he took in the unamused snorts from every girl save Ruby in his stride, “I have no excuses for my behaviour, but I would like to assure you it won’t happen again. I hope that we could at least be friends, if you can forgive me for my stupidness.” All eyes turned to Weiss, who spoke after a moment.

“’Stupidness’ isn’t a word. You meant 'stupidity' or ‘idiocy'. I accept your apology, now please leave me alone.” And with that the heiress turned back to her work, replacing her earphones once more. Wordlessly, Yang turned the boy around and pushed him from the room, shutting the door, and then sat back down. Ruby moved from her protective stance in front of Weiss back to her side of the desk. Blake decided that the entertainment segment of the evening was over and had decided to go back to her book, when the heiress removed one earphone.

“Thank you, guys. I appreciate you defending me.” Then she popped her earphone back in for the final time that night and left Blake feeling completely unworthy of her thanks. After all, she had simply observed; it was Yang and Ruby that had defended Weiss’ honour. Still, Blake didn’t feel the need to correct her, and instead got back to her book, _finally_.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So? What did you think? I'm really glad I finally got some JNPR in here, and also can you tell I'm still mad at douchey Jaune from V1? I did give him some redemption though, because V4 an V5 Jaune are pretty chill tbf. 
> 
> I mentioned it in my chapter update for Sick Days, but in case you missed that: I have opened a tumblr (https://www.tumblr.com/blog/fandom-trash98) where you can send me prompts and I may or may not write them (If you send me prompts with a name - like any name - I'll tag you in the fic bros) so go there and check it out. I sporadically update it when I'm writing stuff (though I sometimes forget). 
> 
> Also this is my longest chapter yet for BA, so success! 
> 
> Anyways, hope you enjoyed. As always please leave kudos and/or comments if you did enjoy and please check out some of my other works! I hope to see you guys next time (and maybe on my new fancy tumblr, ey? well ok it's not _fancy_ but it is a thing). Au revoir mes amis!


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello again! (*sobs*) This begining note is gonna be real short. Please read the end note as I have a couple of things to say. But for now, enjoy the chapter!

Ruby grumbled as she felt her sister’s hand shaking her firmly, turning over and moving away from the irritating interruption from her sleep. A mischievous chuckle sounded, but her sleep addled brain couldn’t process the meaning until she was hefted out of bed, lowered and dropped from a foot or so off the floor. Landing with a thump powerful enough to jolt her into action, but not enough to hurt too much, Ruby sat up quickly and growled.

“Yang! What was _that_ for!? It’s a Saturday!”

The blonde in question was doubled over, laughing riotously at the indignant scowl on her sister’s face, and a quick glance around the room saw Weiss giggling lightly behind her hand and Blake, eyes crinkled with mirth, as she held a book up to her face to hide her laughter. Ruby’s frown fell into a pout as she looked at her sister, who simply laughed harder, before drawing in a big breath, wiping an imaginary tear from her eyes and standing up with her hands on her hips.

“You weren’t getting up Rubles; I had to take drastic measures!” the proclamation was coupled with a dramatic hand-on-heart gesture and a mile-wide grin. The youngest simply rolled her eyes as she began to stand.

“And why, dearest sister, did you feel this was necessary on a _Saturday_?” Instead of responding to the question, Yang turned to Weiss and Blake with a very amused smile. 

“Told you she’d forget.”

It was like those words were a switch, allowing electricity to flow enough to light the bulb in her head as Ruby gasped, shot the rest of the way up to standing, and tackled her sister with a hug and a squeal.

“The Festival! Oh, the Festival is today! Why are we just waiting here!? We have to get ready! Come _on_ Yang, we have to go!” 

Chuckling, Yang extracted herself from Ruby’s grip and her poor attempt to try to pull her to the bathroom.

“Alright, alright Rube Cube, everyone else is ready, ‘cept for breakfast. I let you sleep in, you’re the only one who needs to get organised. Go on, I’ll make some breakfast for everyone while you shower and get dressed.”

Nodding rapidly, Ruby shot off into the bathroom, sheepishly returning but a few seconds later to grab clothes, before closing the door. Yang shook her head with a smile and turned to the kitchenette.

“So, any veggies here, or can you take a full Vale?”

* * *

Stepping out of the Vale airport, the eight Beacon students were bombarded with an apocalypse of sights, sounds and smells – enough to cause Weiss and Yang to subtly glance towards Ruby, who was far too excited to be panicked by the assault. The younger girl shrieked in jubilation, grabbing hold of an equally excited Nora and darting forward into the masses. Yang’s voice rang out as she called her back, but the two women couldn’t hear her over the noise. Heaving a sigh of long suffering, Yang set off after her sister. The remaining five students collectively shrugged and began to follow Yang as the blonde expertly wove through the crowd. 

When they caught up, they were met with Ruby and Nora jumping excitedly next to a High Striker, both begging Yang to try.

“Come on, Yang! You’re so good at these! Plus Nora said she thinks you can’t do it and bet she could beat you!”

“Yeah Blondie! I would wipe the floor with you, but I bet you can’t even lift the hammer!”

A smirk stretched the blonde’s face for a moment as she cracked her neck and knuckles, rolled her shoulders and flexed.

“Oh, really?” 

Smugness oozed from both Yang and Nora, as Yang approached the game steward and paid for a turn. Ruby and Nora backed away to stand with the group as Yang hefted the hammer onto one shoulder with one arm, shot a sly grin at her sister, winked and brought the hammer down in tandem with a lunge, causing the bell to sing. Ruby whooped and cheered as the rest of the group stood slack-jawed, until Nora lunged forward, demanding to know her techniques and ordering an arm wrestle. The blonde laughed, and walked over to Ruby, ruffling her hair and looking down mock-sternly. 

“What have you been told about running off young lady?” Ruby gave a full body sigh in response, eyes rolling, and caused Yang to grin. “Just make sure your scroll is on little sis, this is a big place with a lot of people, it wouldn’t be too difficult to get lost.”

Ruby nodded so fast a small part of Yang was concerned she would hurt her neck, then she grabbed Nora once more and they shot off further into the festival. Yang’s eyes followed her sister as she bit her lip pensively.

“I wouldn’t worry too much Yang.” Turning, the blonde cocked her head at Pyrrha, silently requesting an explanation. “Well, I understand your concern because she is still a minor, but if she’s with Nora then nothing bad will happen to her. Nora is very protective of her friends, and she may not look or act like it, but she’s trained in martial arts.” Yang simply raised her eyebrows as Ren nodded confirmation before speaking up himself.

“If anyone can help Ruby dispose of her excited energy, it’s Nora.”

Heaving a deep sigh and shrugging, she turned to her roommates, motioning silently for them to follow her into the fairgrounds. 

“May as well enjoy a few games while she does then, ey?”

* * *

As Yang was about to set off into the fairgrounds, intent to make the most of the day and definitely not shadow her sister from as close as possible without being suffocating, she noticed that Blake was clinging a lot closer to her than could be considered normal from the sparsely affectionate woman. She shot a quick request to Weiss and Ren to ask if they could grab them all some drinks, before leading Blake over to a fairly empty clearing near a bench.

“Hey, what’s wrong?” Yang had learnt that the best way to talk to Blake was to be kind but blunt. Don’t try to talk around it and hope she tells you, ask outright and see if she wants to share. Sometimes it works sometimes it doesn’t but as it does more often than not that is her chosen method. Blake jolted a little bit at the question before looking back at Yang, who hoped she was projecting enough concern and care that she could convince the black-haired girl to open up to her a little bit. After a momentary pause for consideration, it seemed she had done as she wanted, because her friend began to speak.

“I just, I really don’t like crowds or enclosed spaces. They make me panicky. Adam used to lock me in the coat closet when I did something he didn’t like, or he was in a bad mood, and whenever I was around a crowd it was a crowd of his _friends_.” Yang did not like the way she spat out the word ‘friends’, but stayed silent with a look to encourage her to continue.

“It’s nothing, I’ll be fine, it just reminds me of _him_ and _them_ and all the stuff they did to me, so I don’t really like them, and I’m sorry if I’m standing too close, I can stop, it’s just you’ve been so kind to me and you make me feel safer and –”

“Woah, woah, woah, relax Blake. First of all, it’s not nothing. If it causes you distress then it’s important and you shouldn’t trivialise it. You’re allowed to be scared and have emotions, just like you’re allowed to talk about them. And I won’t ask about the ‘stuff they did’ but know that if you want to talk to me about it I am all ears. Also, if I make you feel safer then one I’m flattered, and two by all means stick close to me. I’m glad you told me you’re claustrophobic ‘cause now I know to avoid the corn maze, and instead you can enjoy some of my a-maize-ing puns!”

Yang put on her biggest shit-eating grin and internally pumped a fist when Blake’s pensive and slightly fearful expression morphed into one she recognized as her being annoyed when she found of Yang’s puns funny. ‘Just in time too’ she thought to herself as she spotted Weiss and Ren returning with their drinks.

She would make this a fun day for Blake no matter the cost.

* * *

Weiss Schnee was certainly not pouting. That was a reprehensible action far from befitting a Schnee, one that would cause her family to sneer with disdain, something that she would entirely deserve. So no, she was definitely not pouting. She was, however, admittedly a little disappointed. While she pretended to only go begrudgingly, she was rather looking forward to the excursion, both because she marvelled at the event and because it would be a prime opportunity for her to get to know her friend a little better, or at least, that was what she had thought would happen. But no, her dolt of a buddy had run off with one of their neighbours and left Weiss to deal with her oaf of an older sister, a woman that was more difficult to hold conversation with than a wall and a man who was just as difficult to talk to but at least slightly more approachable. Ren had elected to join them after Jaune and Pyrrha had ran off together, probably to keep an eye on Nora for himself if Weiss had to guess. What was worse was that they were close enough to Ruby and Nora, because Yang insisted on keeping an eye on her from a distance just in case, so that Weiss could hear them having an uproarious time together, something that irked the alabaster-haired woman far more than she felt it should. 

She was focused so hard on trying not to let her disgruntlement show that she didn’t realise Ruby had ran over until she was being yanked by the hand and had to stumble to try to avoid having her first kiss with the floor. Once she got her bearings she realised that Ruby was prattling about some game at a hundred miles an hour with a beaming smile on her face. ‘Well,’ she thought, a mild smile coming to her face, ‘at least she’s enjoying herself’. They stopped in front of some form of shooting game with air rifles that shot some kind of suction cup bullet things. Weiss was an heiress, she didn’t need to concern herself with the names of such simple things. As Ruby excitedly explained why Weiss should be thrilled with the stall, Weiss felt an unreasonable amount of pride and smugness at the fact that Ruby had abandoned Nora to drag her to this game.

Said smugness was replaced with irritation when the exuberant redhead returned with the other six people they had come with today.

“Okay! Me and Ruby have come up with a great idea! We’re gonna split into teams and see which room is better at a selection of games of our choice!”

“We even came up with team names! We’re team Ruby, because this was my idea and also cause R-W-B-Y kinda spells Ruby!”

“And! We’re team Juniper, because J-N-P-R and because that’s my favourite colour!”

“Colour?” Yang questioned. “I thought a juniper was a type of berry?” Ruby yelled out an excited ‘That’s what I said!’ as Nora laughed and Yang scratched the back of her head.

“I mean, you’re not wrong, a juniper berry is a thing, but they have a different colour! The berries are kinda like a blue colour, but the actual colour juniper is like a darkish green colour, kinda like most of the shirts Ren wears! _ThoughthathasabsolutelynothingtodowithwhyIlikethecolour_!” She tailed off with nervous laughter as everyone but Ruby and Jaune raised their eyebrows at her. She coughed to clear her throat and then continued.

“Look, that doesn’t matter, what’s important here is Team JNPR is going to crush Team RWBY!”

At this Ruby jumped up and started animatedly telling Nora exactly why she was wrong. Weiss sighed and then shared an amused glance with her roommates. Ruby’s antics may have been loud, but you couldn’t deny they were endearing…

* * *

The plan was going perfectly. Operation ‘Notice Me’ was in full swing. Ruby really was a genius, which Nora supposed she should have expected given the girl got into university two whole years early, but still. As expected, their “Team Challenge” idea was giving both girls exactly what they wanted. 

After running away from the group a second time, Ruby had confided that she wanted to get to know Weiss better and maybe win her a prize as thanks for being a great buddy so far, but wasn’t sure the heiress’ pride would allow that. After Nora revealed that she thought the same about Ren (even if she didn’t disclose the fact that her intentions steered away from friendly and more into the romantic area) they came up with a plan. Get everyone together under the pretence of friendly team sports and then force them into games that could be played as two vs two. Then, using the gift of the buddy system, they could say that as part of the Team Challenge rules, your buddy was your “partner” for the games. That last bit was Nora’s idea just so she could get away with saying that Ren was her partner for the day and Ruby seemed 100% on board with the idea, so really it was a win. No one seemed to mind, regardless.

Now she stood watching as Ruby and Weiss went up against Jaune and Pyrrha in a balloon popping game, cuddling tightly to the giant fuzzy sloth plushie that Ren had won for her in the last game against Yang and Blake. She whooped and cheered for her roommates as another orange dart from Pyrrha popped a balloon successfully, then Yang whooped even louder as Ruby landed three red darts in a row on three different unsuspecting balloons. No one commented on how the yellow and white darts never seemed to hit the mark, much preferring to enjoy the fun and keep their friends’ prides’ intact. A moment later and all the darts were spent; Ruby had won by a small margin and thus the red and white duo got the prize. Nora thought it was positively adorable how adamant Ruby was that Weiss get to choose a plushie and how the heiress blushed slightly while trying to convince Ruby to choose.

“Okay, okay! How about I pick the teddy and you get to keep it?” Weiss turned to Yang, who just shrugged with a small smile, and then reluctantly agreed. If anyone but Nora saw how tightly she held the stuffed beowolf after Ruby handed it to her they didn’t mention it, and Nora would never out a friend like that… well, not in this instance anyway. It would embarrass Ruby as well, and it was Ruby who planned this whole thing. That didn’t stop her from grinning like a maniac at the two, especially when she noticed that Yang had definitely noticed too. 

“Alright! Final game! Come on sis, you gotta win something, you and Blake have sucked so far!”

* * *

Back in the dorm room, Blake was reading on her bed, ursa plushie sat beside her, as the rest of her roommates chatted happily about the day’s events as they prepared for bed. Well, Yang and Ruby were still preparing for bed, but the heiress, like Blake herself, had been efficient and was already ready. 

“I knew if I teased you about it you would go all Super Yang and win the next game! You’re so predictable sometimes sis!”

“Yeah, yeah, sure. Maybe I was just waiting ‘till the last game so that none of you could forget my sweet, sweet victory? You ever think about that?”

“Please, if they could, your eyes would have gone red after that challenge! I’m glad it worked though, otherwise Blake wouldn’t have gotten a teddy and that would have been sad!”

“Ruby, neither you nor Yang received a plush toy and you seem to be content. I’m sure Blake would have survived, as would have I had you not been so insistent.”

“But Weiss! That’s so different!”

“How exactly?”

“Well, for starters, my sister has more teddies than clothes so – ”

“Yang! I do not! I have a reasonable amount of teddies! And anyway, you still have that dragon that you sneak out from your desk draw every night when you think we’re asleep!”

“I do not! You have no proof!”

“Actually,” Blake decided to cut in, “when you get up to get it you shake the bed. I’m quite a light sleeper. I can confirm that you’ve been doing that.”

Yang looked horrified and betrayed, while Weiss and Ruby laughed and Blake smirked. 

“Well, now we all have teddies you don’t have to hide it anymore Yang!”

Huffing and pouting, Yang went over to her draw, unlocked her desk and withdrew a clearly well-loved dragon plushie, before placing it gently on her bed. She shrugged as she addressed the room.

“Guess there’s no shame in it now. But while today has been a blast, I’m kinda tired, so I vote we hit the hay.”

There were murmurs of agreement around the room as everyone climbed into bed, Yang the last one as she waited for Ruby to be in her bunk and Blake to place her book down before turning out the lights. Weiss used the light of her scroll to help guide the blonde to her own bunk, before the room fell into almost complete darkness, only the low light from the half-moon gently brushing the floor between the bunks. Just barely, Blake caught the heiress snuggling her new beowolf plush toy and smiled. Everyone voiced their goodnights and a comfortable silence settled on them. Grabbing her new ursa plushie, she began to reflect on her day with Yang. The blonde had been all encompassing for her, completely distracting her from her fear to the point where she barely remembered the near-panic attack towards the start of the day.

Yang was a wonderful friend and it truly had been a great day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay! So, that was 3k words of just fluff! I hope you enjoyed that! So! This chapter has gone up now because I promised you a chapter in the New Year and I hate breaking promises, but the over observant few may have noticed that there is still [On hiatus] written in the summary and that is intentional. 
> 
> My hiatus will be officially over on **February 1st 2018** as that is when my exam period ends. It starts Jan 15th, but I still need to revise. I know I've spent the last month revising and some of you may think it's excessive, but I seriously don't think it's enough and for me my degree comes first.
> 
> That being said, I will try to put out some material every now and again during the next month or so, because writing is fun for me and it will probably lower my stress and benefit my health to do some fun stuff during this exam season, idk I'm not a biologist or psychologist, but that's what I've heard. 
> 
> If I do put stuff out, it will most likely be one-shots as part of Red and White Osiria, so if you're not subscribed to that or you missed it go check it out (if you want ofc, I'm not your mum) because writing one-shots is a heck of a lot easier than writing for my multi-chapter fics. I only wrote a BA chapter because I feel like I've owed you guys the festival chapter for like a month and a half now. 
> 
> After my exam season I get a week before term kicks off again with classes, so in that time I'm gonna hopefully be doing a lot of writing and posting, so keep your eyes open for that. And then once my term starts again I hope to post either weekly or bi-weekly depending on what my weekly schedule is like (it will most likely be bi-weekly as I go from 2 3-hour labs a week to 3 3-hour labs a week and a 4 hour computer training session a week next term).
> 
> That's all for now, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. As always, please don't hesitate to point out any errors I might have missed, because I don't have a beta reader and these are largely unedited. Please leave a comment and/or kudos if you enjoyed because they all mean the world to me. I'll catch you next time! Au reviour!


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so I'm back! If you read any of my other fics, or are a regular reader for this one, check out the end notes for some info about my newly decided upon upload schedule. Aside from that, enjoy this chapter!
> 
> TW: Brief mention of blood.

Weiss strolled into the dorm room at 4:30pm on a Monday, receiving two out of the three expected greetings. Frowning slightly, she placed her bag on her desk chair, began unpacking and, as nonchalantly as possible, inquired about the whereabouts of a particularly-red-obsessed dolt. 

“She’s hanging out with one of her classmates. Some girl called Penny, I think. They hit it off cause they’re real similar. She texted me earlier, told me not to expect her until around curfew this evening.”

Nodding absently at Yang, Weiss placed her now empty bag in its place by the desk, pulled out her business textbook and turned to the material she intended to cover this evening. ‘So Ruby is hanging out with some Penny girl. Interesting.’ Her brow creased once more. ‘Why should that be interesting? It’s wonderful that she is making friends.’ Something felt off to Weiss, a feeling in her gut that made her slightly uncomfortable, and she couldn’t quite figure out what it was. ‘Perhaps it’s simply the fact that I haven’t met this Penny, so I am merely concerned about how she may treat Ruby? That must be it.’ Having rationalised her feelings, Weiss placed in her earphones, began her study playlist and lost herself to the world of business intricacies.

Before she knew it, five hours had passed, and Weiss found herself up to date on all tasks with an hour and a half left until curfew. Usually, this would be about the time that Ruby dragged the rest of the room into some sort of game, where Weiss would go along ‘begrudgingly’ even if she secretly enjoyed the activities. With no Ruby, she found herself stuck. It was much too late to practise with Myrtenaster and she couldn’t bring herself to start on work that she was yet to cover in lectures. She supposed she could always do more maths revision, as that was one of her weak subjects, but nothing in her wanted to have to look at so much as a fraction. Glancing discreetly around the room, she found Blake hunched over her desk, writing something with intense focus, and Yang lounging on Blake’s bed, earphones in and watching something on her laptop. That gave her an idea. Ruby had found it ridiculous that Weiss had only seen a few movies in her life and had given her a list of movies she was to watch; this would be the perfect time to watch one of them. Pulling the list from her desk draw, she decided what she wanted to watch. Her dolt of a ‘partner’, as Ruby had taken to referring to her since the festival, had categorised the movies based on genre or type, as well as placing a few in a ‘MUST WATCH FIRST’ category. Shrugging, she decided on the movie at the top of the list, pulled out her laptop, changed and then settled into bed. Her partner had been adamant that she must be comfy when watching the movies and Weiss couldn’t see any good reason to insist otherwise.

* * *

“Weiss… Are you crying?”

“No! Shut up Yang! There’s just something in my eyes!”

“… Right… Both of them… Sure…”

Blake tried to supress the chuckle that bubbled up at Yang’s scepticism, hoping to hide her amusement with the blonde, but one glance to her now grinning partner suggested she was unsuccessful. The wink that she was shot shattered any illusion she could have crafted. Rolling her eyes, Blake went back to tuning out the room around her.

* * *

The Lion King wasn’t too bad, Weiss thought to herself as the credits began to run, aside from that absolute trauma in the beginning. ‘I mean honestly, who thought that was a good idea for a child’s film!?’. Discreetly, Weiss wiped her eyes from any tear trails that were left on her face. Picking up her scroll, she noticed the time, five minutes before curfew, and was silently impressed with how conveniently that happened. Ruby should be back any moment now and Weiss could go about the rest of her usual evening routine. Briefly, she realised that she had become far more comfortable with the three other girls in this room than she thought she could, and supposed that, that was probably the point of this living arrangement. Glancing at her scroll once more, she realised her musings hadn’t even been a whole minute long, causing her to let out a long sigh. ‘Well, this is rather pathetic, isn’t it? Here I am acting like some petulant housewife waiting for her lover to return’. That thought caused the alabaster-haired girl to pause; that was a strange way to think of her waiting for Ruby. She shook it off, reasoning that it was simply the closest fitting metaphor and thus just highlighted how ridiculous her behaviour was, and decided that she should pack away her laptop and begin her proper sleeping routine. 

Stepping out of the bathroom ten minutes later, Weiss frowned.

“Yang, didn’t Ruby say she would be back by curfew? It’s eleven-o-five.”

Blake looked up from her work as Yang sat up with a frown. 

“Yeah… she did. I’ll call her.”

Nodding, Weiss sat down on her bed, watching as Yang called Ruby and feeling relieved when she saw signs that Ruby had answered. She waited patiently for Yang to end the call before raising an expectant eyebrow, something she noticed Blake also did. 

“She just lost track of time is all. She and Penny were playing Monopoly with one of Penny’s roommates and they hadn’t realised. I’m gonna go get her so she’s not walking across campus by herself.”

The blonde didn’t wait for a response, slipping into some trainers and leaving the room. Blake went back to work with a hum of acknowledgement and a short nod and Weiss simply got situated into bed. 

When Yang returned with Ruby, she pretended she had fallen asleep for a reason unbeknownst to her.

* * *

The next day was seemingly fine, Ruby’s track running happened and then she returned to the dorm to shower as always. After she exited the shower, she sat down next to Weiss at their desk and began chipping away at a piece of complex engineering work. That was par the course and Weiss found herself relaxing slightly, until Ruby’s scroll began to ping and the younger girl abandoned her work to answer. Without really knowing why, Weiss began to tense as the younger girl turned to her sister. 

“Hey, Yang? I’m gonna go hang out with Penny for a bit. Penny’s roommates are out so she’s set up her old projector and wants us to watch a movie on it.”

“Oh-ho! _Really_? You and Penny gonna be snuggling up together to watch a movie while her roommates are out? Do I have to go with you to give Penny the patented ‘Big Sister Talk’?”

Air quotes around the last phrase accompanied Yang’s self-described ‘shit-eating grin’, while Ruby blushed a brilliant red and spluttered out refutations at her sister.

“Wha- no! _Yang_! It’s not like that! Penny is just a friend! Why do you have to make it more than it is!”

Weiss tuned out as the sisters began to bicker, the implications of Yang’s statement settling like treacle in her gut. On the one hand, it was nice to see that Yang was supportive and clearly had no problem with the idea of Ruby being homosexual. Maybe Ruby had already told her as much, giving Yang fuel for her teasing? On the other hand, the idea of Ruby being with this Penny girl made her very uncomfortable. She wasn’t sure why, and she didn’t want to address it, so instead she shoved the feeling down and attempted to distract herself.

“Ruby, do you not have work to do? Perhaps you should finish your tasks before you go gallivanting off for two hours to do nothing of worth?”

She tried, oh how she tried, to keep her tone even, to not come across as admonishing and simply just be suggesting the logical course of action. Unfortunately, that attempt seemed to fall flat, as Ruby deflated slightly and Yang bristled.

“Yeah, maybe you’re right –”

“No! Rubes you’re allowed to take a break. Exams are weeks away and you did a load of work last night anyway! You’re top of your classes, you hardly have anything to worry about, don’t worry! Look, here –”

Yang dived forward, snatching Ruby’s scroll from her hands and typing on it before throwing it back to her stunned younger sister.

“There. I told Penny you’re going. Can’t back out of it now, so you better get your stuff together and set off.”

She punctuated this with a pair of folded arms, and Ruby knew she couldn’t argue. Still feeling somewhat reluctant, the younger girl gathered her things and, after shooting off a final glance to Weiss, left the room.

“What was that about, Schnee?”

If the menacing tone wasn’t indicative enough, the way she was addressed was a red flag. Weiss had come to the realisation that Yang only ever addressed people by their last names when she was furious with them. With a sigh, she set out to control the damage before her over-zealous roommate punted her through a window.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t intend to come across so harshly, I’m simply rather stressed about this exam season. I would hate for Ruby to fall short of her potential, just as I would hate to not achieve mine, so perhaps I projected that onto her then. I’ll apologise when she returns this evening.”

A pause. And then Yang nodded with a grunt, seemingly satisfied with the answer. Weiss had a lot of internal affairs to deal with at some point as her behaviour raised some questions, but for now she decided to return to studying how issues within a company are handled and tried not to grimace at how she had spent so long with Yang she was now making puns accidentally.

* * *

Weiss closed her textbook with a huff. Since the debacle with Yang and Ruby earlier, she found her focus waning until it was practically non-existent. Glancing at the desk clock informed her that it had only been an hour and a half or so. If Ruby was only watching one movie, surely she’d be finishing up about now? Ugh. What does it even matter? With one more irritated sigh, she stood, not even bothering to properly put away her things, and changed into her athletic gear. Neither Yang nor Blake paid heed as she collected Myrtenaster from beneath her bed and left the room. Just as well, as Weiss had no idea why she was so agitated and so couldn’t have explained if questioned. She reached the gym in record time and set up a training dummy to practise on. As she thrust, parried and moved around the dummy her mind began to wander. A great many thoughts graced her briefly before leaving, but thoughts of her buddy seemed reluctant to shift. Was she really _that_ concerned about this Penny thing? Perhaps she should meet the girl and put to rest some of her fears. She spun into a jab on autopilot as she began to analyse. 

Fears? What exactly is she afraid of? That Penny may mistreat Ruby? With a grunt and a parry, she disregarded that thought. If she was mistreating Ruby it would be obvious; Ruby wouldn’t go back for starters and anyway, the girl was terrible at hiding when she was upset. Besides, Yang seemed to be completely content with the mystery girl, and no-one was more protective of Ruby than Yang. Perhaps she’s afraid that Ruby will get too caught up in the friendship and her studies will suffer? Weiss recalled, as she danced under the swing of an invisible enemy, how obsessed Winter could become with new things, be it people or otherwise. Back home in Atlas, before Father began to keep them in the Manor more, Winter had a friend, Lila, and she was obsessed with the girl. They would do everything together and Winter completely forgot about everything else she was supposed to do. But that can’t be right. Ruby is very studious, even if her organisational skills and task management systems left much to be desired; the younger girl hasn’t had anything less than a 90 all term. Besides, Ruby and Penny are on the same course, their first ‘playdate’, if you will, was a study session. Grunt, swing, parry, stab. Then maybe… Maybe she was afraid that she would be forgotten, cast aside as Ruby developed her friendship with Penny. 

The shock of the thought caused Weiss to stumble slightly, grip slipping in the middle of a lunge, and in an attempt to stop the lunge she drew her rapier back right into her bare hand. Blood streamed down from her palm as she let out a monumental curse. Overpowering her instinctive need to drop Myrtenaster, she rushed over to its case, shoved it in as delicately as she could manage given the situation, and clipped it shut. Without bothering to clean up the training room after herself, Weiss rushed down the corridors towards the nurse’s office and bodily slammed into someone small and red. An apology was on the tip of her tongue when she realised she’d just slammed into the very distraction that caused her to cut herself in the first place. Ruby was staring at her with wide silver eyes, or rather she was staring at the blood pouring from Weiss’ hand. Right. She was bleeding. Jumping up, the alabaster-haired girl attempted to continue of her journey when she was halted by Ruby once more. 

“Here, Weiss, wait. You need to put pressure on that and hold it up above your head. You might feel a bit dumb but it’s what you gotta do to stop the bleeding. What happened anyway?”

Weiss was much to panicked to offer much more than ‘training accident’ as Ruby pulled a (hopefully) clean handkerchief from her pocket and tied it around the wound. Then the younger girl began to lead Weiss to the nurse’s office, trying to get Weiss to stop the hyperventilation she hadn’t realised she was doing.

“How are you so calm right now?” She managed to choke out once her breathing was back under control.

“Well, to tell you the truth, I was really freaked out when you crashed into me all bloody like that, but then I realised you were freaking out, so I wasn’t allowed to be freaking out, so I’m not. Once you’re safe with the nurse I am probably going to freak out a little bit, but right now I just wanna get you there, yknow?”

Weiss simply nodded at the explanation; there was nothing more her brain could think to add to that. They arrived at the office in record time, Ruby pounding on the door, and once the nurse opened the door Weiss was dragged in. A few moments later, she exited with a stitched and bandaged hand and an instruction letter for taking care of the wound. Ruby sprang up from the wall she was leaned against and rushed over, questions about Weiss’ status streaming out of her mouth. Raising one hand to silence her, Weiss briefly explained that she was fine and needed to properly pack up her things and collect her weapon.

“What were you doing in the corridor anyway, Ruby?” 

“Oh! Well, I’d just finished watching the movie with Penny, and she wanted to watch another one, and I was okay for that, but then she sorta tried to…” Ruby trailed off, cheeks pink, before shaking her head and continuing. “Well, it doesn’t matter, I just changed my mind about wanting to watch the movie and was heading back to the room when you appeared.”

Nodding in response, Weiss mulled that over. Ruby wasn’t half as subtle as she thought, and the heiress was quick to deduce that Penny must have tried something, be it a kiss or something far less innocent. That turned her stomach slightly, though she didn’t know why because she was far from homophobic, but knowing that Ruby clearly rejected this made her feel a lot better. She rationalised this as her simply being concerned because Penny is older than Ruby and left it at that; there had been enough accidents resulting from over-analysing today. Reaching the gym, she began to try to pack up on her own, but ultimately had to instruct Ruby to do so as her hand made it inconvenient at best and downright impossible at worst. At least it wasn’t her writing hand. She did not need to give her Father another reason to try to take her sport from her. After they had finished packing everything up they set off to return to the dorm. 

Along the way, Weiss reflected silently to herself and came to one conclusion: she was fast becoming a headcase.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so I'm honestly not 100% on this chapter, I don't feel like it's my best and I may tweak it at some point in the future, but the plot points in this chapter are necessary for character development and other plot points I have planned for later, so bear with. There isn't going to be any romantic nuts and dolts though (even though it's my second fave RWBY ship, just because it would be so pure). Please do leave some criticisms, improvements, things you liked, things you didn't etc. because I think I may need to adjust some things, and your thoughts are useful for me. Some of you see things in different ways to me and they're a lot better and help me feed into my other ideas than what I have on my own.
> 
> Oh, and I know that Weiss' rapier is a square-edged rapier and they're not good for slashes, but for the purposes of this chapter (and the rest of the fic) I'm going to pretend that Myrtenaster has a flat-blade and can be used for slicing, thus when Weiss grabs at her sword while falling, she slices her hand on it.
> 
> Now onto scheduling stuff. I have decided a few things to help make my life easier and keep writing fanfiction something that I enjoy. I will be updating one story a week out of all the fics that I do. I intend to update this one at least every fortnight, because I know it is a lot of you guys' fave one, but I do want to write After Effects, as well as a few others too. This, however, excludes Red and White Osiria, which will be written and updated at my discretion. This chapter counts as my one update for this week, but don't worry, I'll have something out sooner than next week because I have a couple RAWO chapters hanging about. I've also decided to shift Sick Days from a sort of pallet cleanser fic to a proper one, because a lot of you like it and it's pretty fun to write. So for anyone that reads that, I'm going to go through it and clean it up a bit. 
> 
> As I've mentioned before, I have a tumblr (https://fandom-trash98.tumblr.com/) and if you want to send me prompts you should send them there. I can't promise to do them all, but I'll definitely look at them. Also, as was suggested to me by a friend, if you guys want to support me (for I am but a poor student) I have a ko-fi account now: ko-fi.com/fandomtrashfics . By no means do I expect any of you to use this, but if anyone does feel like they wanna be super generous and help me out a little, that would be where to do it. 
> 
> That's about all for now, I think. I hope you enjoyed and if you did please leave a kudos and/or a comment (because they all mean the world to me) and I'll see you guys next week at the latest.


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guess who's not dead! I have had crippling writers block, and for that I apologise, and thank you all for being so patient with me. This is a heavier chapter, I don't go in massive detail about these things, but the trigger warnings are there just in case.
> 
> TW: homophobic slur, panic attack, PTSD flashbacks, implied past rape/sexual assault

To say Blake was surprised when Weiss came back with a bandaged hand and a bashful Ruby was an understatement. Yang had jumped up immediately, ready to raise hell if necessary, until Weiss had placated her with an explanation and Ruby had promised to talk to her later. Once sure that everything was alright, Blake tuned out the conversation and went back to her reading. Some time had passed, Blake being completely absorbed in the world her book created from her, when her mind jolted with a realisation. She had a reading assignment due the following week and hadn’t yet picked up the book. A quick glance to the clock above the door told her it was 9:30pm; that gave her half an hour to find and check out the book before the library was closed for the evening. Why the library closed a full hour before curfew was beyond her, but she had long since accepted it. Since she was still dressed, it was a simple decision to collect the book now, rather than leave it and forget again. With that in mind, she bid a brief farewell to her roommates and made her way to the library.

Upon arrival, she was greeted with the now familiar shelves and shelves of books, all containing a vast collection of books on more topics than she could possibly count. One day she wanted to own this many books, all on the things she cared about. Books had been such a lifeline during her torment under Adam’s watch; how could she not adore them? They provided her with friends when she had none, escapes when there was nowhere to turn. Books allowed her to imagine a world in which she was safe, where maybe she was the one helping other people, or adventuring around the planet, or even just simple things like owning a warm bed with a plush, plump duvet and soft, fluffy pillows. That was a particularly common dream of hers, as she lay, reading about princesses and doctors and all manor of wealthy individuals, on her wooden slab bed, huddling tight under the beaten and battered blanket that had been gifted to her on one of Adam’s better days. Weiss had complained about the bunkbeds during the first week, but honestly, Blake couldn’t see the issue; they were the most comfortable beds she had slept on since before her parents had been killed. 

Shaking that train of thought away, Blake approached the section that contained her book, analysing all of the spines for the right title. Barely a minute passed before she found it, tucked away neatly on the bottom shelf in front of her. Within minutes she had checked the book out, had a pleasant chat with the librarian, and was on her way back to her room. A quick glance at her watch told her it had barely been ten minutes and she was glad for that. The last thing she needed was an overprotective blonde to come charging about searching for her. Honestly, she appreciated the care and support more than she could ever vocalise, but sometimes it was a bit much; it’s not like she was an invalid. She looked up from her watch just in time to realise that she was about to collide with a person and there wasn’t anything she could do to stop that. Blake bounced back off of the person, apology ready on her lips, when they spoke.

“Watch where you’re going, _freak_!” Cardin.

Hoping to avoid an altercation, Blake got to her feet and began to apologise, but he cut her off.

“Yeah you better be sorry. You faggots don’t even belong here, go back to wherever the hell you came from and stay out of my sight.” Faggot. She hadn’t heard that term in a while, not directed at her at least, and it left her shocked. How could he even know her sexual orientation? _Did_ he know? Or was he just calling her a slur for the sake of it? So wrapped up in her surprise, she didn’t notice when he raised his hands, but she most certainly became aware as he shoved her back to the ground, kicking at her for good measure, before stalking off, muttering more insults. 

Faggot.

She began hyperventilating before she could think to do anything else. Scrambling to her feet, she made her way to the communal kitchens. Perhaps a glass of water would help; she really didn’t want to have to go back to her room and explain this. As her breathing got more shallow and frantic, memories began to assault her. Every time Adam had been in a foul mood and had lashed out at her, the time he beat her almost to death because she asked about same-sex relationships, how every time he caught her looking at a woman too long she would be starved or beaten or locked in the cupboard until she ‘learnt her lesson’. Blake had been aware she was bisexual for a long time, but that was unacceptable to Adam. She had to be straight, because he didn’t want to be ‘serviced’ by someone who wasn’t. Bile rose to the back of her throat as _those_ memories resurfaced but she forced it down as she crashed around the halls haphazardly. It was a wonder she hadn’t drawn any attention. 

When she finally made it to the communal kitchen she found it blissfully empty. She grabbed a glass, rinsed it out and filled it with water, trying desperately to take slow sips and calm her racing heart. She doesn’t know what it is in her brain that hates her, but that part points out that there are knives kept in the kitchen, in the draw right next to her, and her fingers itch as she tries to resist the temptation. Yang had taken her knife to stop this.

Wait…

Yang. Yang! Drawing another gasping breath, Blake shakily withdrew her scroll and somehow managed to call her buddy. She didn’t want to explain to the other two, but Yang had promised to never judge her, to keep her safe. There was a click as the call connected.

“ _Hey Blake, what’s-_ ”

“Yang, please. Please come to the kitchen, please. I. I need to. Please, I can’t- I can’t breathe and-”

“ _Woah, woah, woah, hey, okay, I’m coming, I’ll be there in a sec, just hold on._ ”

Then there was another click as the call disconnected, and Blake dropped to the floor.

* * *

Hanging up, Yang turned to Weiss and Ruby, both of which had questions written across their faces. She shot them the most easy-going smile she could manage, before leaving with some flimsy excuse about having to ‘help Blake pick out her book’. The communal kitchen wasn’t far from their room, only about two minutes down the hall at a casual walk, so Yang set off at a jog, wondering what in the world could have happened for her friend to sound like that. 

The sight that she met almost made her heart stop beating; Blake, curled up in a ball, hyperventilating on the ground, sobbing hysterically all the while. Without much thought, Yang raced forward, stopping in front of Blake and slowly lowering herself to eye level.

“Hey.” A simple, soft introduction, just to let the girl know she was there and not startle her. Ironically, it was Yang who was startled as Blake launched herself into the blonde’s arms, still crying and gripping tightly at her shirt and back. Bringing her arms up around her friend, Yang began to rub circles onto her back and make what she hoped were soothing noises. It took some time, long enough that Yang was concerned she might have to take Blake to the nurse, before the smaller woman’s breathing evened out and she stopped trembling, only occasionally hiccupping. Slowly, the blonde drew back to look into her friend’s eyes.

“Do you want to tell me what that was about?”

No judgement, just curiosity, and Yang knew that she needed to be satisfied with the answer, even if she wanted to break whatever it was that caused this. The blonde hid her disappointment as Blake shook her head ‘no’.

“I’d ra-rather not, if that’s okay?” A nod and a relieved sigh. “I dropped my book on my way here, can you help me find it?”

“Of course, anything you need.”

As Yang pulled her to her feet, Blake couldn’t help but feel infinitely grateful for her wonderfully kind friend. She would probably tell her what happened later, _after_ curfew. The last thing she wanted was Yang getting arrested for murdering another student.

* * *

“I wonder what that was all about…”

“Don’t worry about it Weiss. Yang knows what she’s doing, I’m sure everything is fine! Speaking of being alright, how’s your hand? Is it hurting? Do you have medicine for it?”

“My hand is fine, just a little bit sore. The nurse did give me painkillers, yes, but nothing more than that. Now, if you’ll excuse me Ruby, I would like to rest.”

Ruby nodded, albeit reluctantly. She really didn’t want to be left with her thoughts right now, that whole situation with Penny was… uncomfortable. Honestly, she felt bad as it was an accident, Penny had just been trying to change the movie, but her clumsiness got the better of her. When she fell on top of Ruby it sent her mind into overdrive. The movie she had chosen was, well, it was a lot to process. Now, Ruby does love action movies, but she wasn’t expecting Penny to set it up like that, with the speakers so loud and the TV so bright in the dark room. It was partially her fault anyway; Penny had asked if it was okay and she had said yes, not wanting to upset her new friend. By the end of the movie, Ruby was incredibly overstimulated and Penny landing on top of her was the final straw, she panicked and fled, only to crash into Weiss. It was only when she noticed Weiss bleeding that she could put her embarrassment aside to help her friend. 

With a sigh of resignation, she decided to follow her partner’s example and get ready for bed; she was drained. A few moments later saw her nestling down into bed, ready to attempt to sleep.

“Ruby?”

“Yeah, Weiss?”

“…If you want to talk to me about whatever happened with Penny that had you rushing back to the dorm, you can you know. I promise I’ll listen. If you want of course, there’s no pressure.”

The younger girl contemplated that for a moment, before sighing quietly.

“I appreciate that, Weiss, but honestly, it’s nothing important. Just a misunderstanding.” It was silent for a moment and Ruby began to think that Weiss had fallen asleep, until she heard a sigh.

“…If you’re sure. Good night, Ruby.”

“I am. G’night Weiss.”

* * *

Cardin was sick of that stupid room of girls. He hated that annoying little kid that snuck into the academy; he hated that stupid, dumb blonde bimbo that was always so obnoxious; he hated the stupid, snotty heiress that thought she was so much better than him; and he hated that stupid emo one that always seemed to be about. He was pretty sure that room was responsible for the prank; it happened the same day he roughed up that little brat that got in his way. Now everything sucked, he couldn’t leave his room without people lining up to snort at him or sneer. Whoever told the other students was the one who pranked him, they must have been; you wouldn’t know it was pigs’ blood unless you were there to smell it, or you put it there yourself. It couldn’t have been his roommates ‘cause they were being harassed too. He was certain it was those girls; who else would it be? An idea derailed his silent fuming, his scowl raising into a malicious smirk.

He’d remind them who was in charge here.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you think I should add any more trigger warnings, please do let me know. I hope you enjoyed the chapter, thank you for reading. Please do comment and leave kudos, they really do make a world of difference.
> 
> Tumblr: https://fandom-trash98.tumblr.com/ 
> 
> Send me prompts at my tumblr if you want. Also I've decided I'm going to post little chapter previews on my tumblr now, as a method of trying to keep myself motivated. So if you want to read those, go follow that tumblr. Later folks!


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